


Chicks Before Broomsticks

by bansheee



Series: Chicks Before Broomsticks [1]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Community: HPFT, Ensemble Cast, F/F, Fake/Pretend Relationship, Falling In Love, Fame, Harry Potter Next Generation, LGBTQ Themes, Paparazzi, Partying, Quidditch
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-21
Updated: 2016-04-25
Packaged: 2018-06-03 13:12:38
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 46,894
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6611902
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bansheee/pseuds/bansheee
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Reserve Beater for the Tutshill Tornados. It sounded like a great career, but for Hollie Finnigan, it was a lot of bench warming and a chance for all of the people she ever told to ask, “Oh, so you know Roxanne Weasley? Can you get me her autograph?”</p>
<p>Hollie knew Roxanne alright. She was in love with her.</p>
<p>A story about love and lies, fame, and a little Quidditch.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Fast Life

**Author's Note:**

> This story is originally and also posted on harrypotterfanfiction.com under the penname banshee.

On the night that followed the Tutshill Tornados first game of the pre-season, Hollie Finnigan found herself sitting at the rail of a random Muggle bar in London, stirring the melting ice cubes in her glass and thinking about the zero seconds of game time she had gotten in. Her team had won the friendly against the Kenmare Kestrels by a narrow margin, so they’d have to wait until the rest of the games that week to find out if they moved up or down at all in the start of season rankings.

Hollie knew her teammates were around somewhere getting drunk off of cheap Muggle liquor in celebration and making bad decisions that they would regret in the morning at their five o’clock practice. Regardless of the fact that her team had won, their coach and team captain both decided that it was too narrow of a margin, and to keep practice at the early hour.

Even though she was a reserve player, Hollie was still required to be there.

Of course, none of that stopped their team from heading out to celebrate.

She looked absentmindedly around the bar to see if she could spot any of her other teammates. Well, one teammate in particular, but more so anyone she recognized so she could tell them she was leaving.

Hollie smiled as she spotted one of her teammates sitting at the end of the bar staring off onto the dance floor. She momentarily abandoned her efforts to leave early and grabbed her drink. After signaling to the bartender that she was just moving down a few spots, and for another refill, she slid in onto the stool next to the young boy.

“Elijah, you look terrified,” Hollie pointed out, startling him.

The boy’s eyes widened as he plastered on – what Hollie thought – was a fake smile. Hollie guessed he had to hardly be old enough to be in the club with them. He’d just made the team that year, fresh out of Hogwarts that Spring. “I’m okay… just taking it all in.”

“Booze would help,” Hollie offered with a shrug, pointing towards her empty glass. She nodded a thank you to the bartender as he set down another one of the same drinks she had just emptied.

“No, thanks. Err— maybe next time, Hollie.” He gave her a shy smile.

Hollie grinned. “It’s alright… probably not a path you’d want to head down anyway,” she shrugged off with another large sip off her beverage. Elijah mumbled something about having to use the loo, so she waved him goodbye and watched him get lost in the crowd.

She watched for a few more moments to see if she could find any of her other teammates. Last she’d heard Alec had convinced Charlotte out onto the dance floor, much to the girl’s dismay. Hollie knew she’d lost them for the majority of the night. They’d begged her to come with, but Hollie knew if she went into the sea of sweaty bodies, that she’d never get them to let her head out early to sleep for practice.

Which was still at five the next morning.

“Hey, baby.”

Hollie’s thoughts were interrupted as the seat next to her refilled. This would be great. She spun in her barstool and turned to the man that had just sat next to her.

“What in the world gave you the idea that I’d like it if you called me baby?”

“Aww, don’t be like that; it was a compliment, brown eyes,” the man pressed forward. He was a Muggle that was very obviously sloshed on whatever non-magic booze her team and the rest of the bar was drinking.

“I’m not taking it as one,” she answered with a definitive tone, leaning back to get him out of her personal space.

“What, you got a boyfriend or something?” he asked, trying to signal the bartender over.

“Or something,” she answered distractedly, looking for Alec or Charlotte, or even Elijah. She was very done with this man.

“Come on baby, let me buy you a drink,” the man reached over and put his hand over hers still resting on the bar top.

With reflexes that came from years of Quidditch, Hollie flipped her hand over and gripped his fingers, bending them back near the point of breaking.

“Or something means get the hell away from me, and I asked you not to call me baby. Go away before I jinx your drunken ass,” Hollie glared at the man until he stumbled out of the seat and wandered off, muttering about crazy lesbians.

“Well he got one thing right.”

Hollie turned around and gave her teammate and fellow benchwarmer, Alec Williams, the driest look she could muster.

“Cute. I’m a female that rejects a male so I’m automatically a lesbian?” Hollie asked him with an eyebrow raised.

Alec gave her a very unamused frown. “I’m not even going to start today. We won, and we’re out to celebrate.”

“We didn’t win anything. The team won. We sat on the bench and handed out water during timeouts,” Hollie retorted. “We, however, have to be awake at five for practice, so I am leaving.”

After getting an eye roll and a hug from Alec and Charlotte, Hollie threw a few Muggle bills on the counter and headed towards the restrooms. She had to find a safe spot she could quietly apparate, and even with a wand she didn’t trust walking down a dark alley in an unfamiliar town by herself. Who knew what kind of Muggles or magical paparazzi folk would be lurking, looking for something or someone to make a quick paycheck off of. She pushed her way through the masses and found herself a place in line for the girl’s bathroom.

There was never a line for the men’s.

She stared ahead of her at the queue of girls waiting, before making the swift decision to cut across and dip in to the men’s room.

She could say she was glad that the one stall was open. It’d be a quick five steps over to latch the door and apparate home to bed, before the next miserable morning of practice started.

But Hollie wasn’t the only girl who decided to use the men’s room that night.

She couldn’t help but stare as Logan Avery pressed Roxanne Weasley against the wall and ran his hand up her thigh. She felt like her feet had had a sticking charm attached to them, and all she could do was watch as Roxanne’s fingers dragged through his hair and tugged. The pair didn’t bother to break their lips apart to see who had entered the bathroom, so as soon as Hollie found her footing, she rushed into the stall and took a heavy breath. She could barely make out a gasp of “is someone there?” as she dissaparated.

Luckily she had made it hope all in one piece, having a mix of liquor and emotions running through her brain. She could hear her dads scolding her for drinking and apparating.

She hoped her team would think that she stayed out too late with the rest of them when they saw her red puffy eyes the next morning. She hoped they wouldn’t know that she cried herself to sleep.

*

Hollie winced as their team manager and coach, Elias Figby, blew into his whistle. She didn’t know why he insisted on whistling when no one was talking, but he did and she hated it. No one was even in the air and he was blowing the whistle.

“I have an announcement before we start drills,” he said in much too loud of a voice for this early in the morning. Hollie couldn’t imagine how her more hungover teammates were doing. “In order to fix our team’s disgusting press these past few months,” he glanced over towards two of the team’s Chasers, Nicholas and Nora Higgins with a scowl, “we’ve set up to do a meet and greet with Tutshill Village’s Primary School for Future Hogwarts Kids. I need a few volunteers – no, Williams – no reserves! This is for positive press, we need faces.” He glanced around the group of hungover players.

Hollie looked down to hide her smile as the only person on their team to volunteer was Roxanne. Not only would the captain of the team make for good press, but she was their team’s golden child; the only positive player that all of the magical kids of Tutshill could look up to.

“Come on, I need two more!” Coach barked out, putting his arms on his sides. “Every second you make me wait is another set of suicide drills!”

Coach had invented a thing where the three Beaters set up in a triangle and the team member weaves through the small area, avoiding the Bludgers that the three Beaters were constantly hitting back and forth. While this wasn’t much of a threat for any of the three Beaters on the team, it was for everyone else.

“Fine, I will.” Logan Avery raised his hand. Hollie averted her eyes to avoid watching Logan wink at Roxanne. Roxanne looked steadily ahead, also avoiding his eye. It was a very big change from the way she’d been looking at him the previous night.

Hollie tried to shove the memory to the back of her mind as it was still a tender subject to think about.

“All right! My man!” Coach cheered, clapping his hand onto Logan’s back. Logan grinned, stumbling as Coach’s hand landed firmly on his back. Hollie thought he was probably still sloshed. “And Higgins!” Both of the Chaser twins looked up. “One of you two, I don’t care which. Fight it out over practice.” The team winced as he stuck the whistle in his mouth again. “Get your hungover arses into the air!”

Every one of the players mounted their brooms and kicked off at the same time. Without paying much mind to the groups of Keepers and Chasers breaking off to work on scoring and goal defense, Hollie flew over to the team’s regular playing Beaters.

Olivia Farmington was their left side Beater. While she often wore a baggy uniform as the team never seemed to bring in one small enough (and it was against the rules to magically modify a uniform in any way) it was okay as it hid her powerful arms. She currently held the British/Irish League record for fastest Bludger hit across a pitch with a one handed swing. Along with the speed that being such a small target brought, she was truly terrifying.

There was also Salvador Dos Santos, their right side. He was a trade – a steal, as their coach had said – from the Mexico National team this season. While Hollie had looked past things as he grew to be a friend, she had been very bitter towards him when he first started. She had thought she’d finally have a chance to play regularly when their old Beater had retired, but Sal took the spot at the last minute.

“Hola, hermana,” Sal greeted as he threw a heavy arm over Hollie’s shoulder. The guy was built like a brick. She was the same height as him, but he more than made up for it with his sheer mass. It was a wonder in itself that he managed to stay on a broom so easily and talentedly. “Too much to drink last night, eh chica?”

“Something like that,” Hollie nodded, not giving anything else away.

“I for one,” Livvy added in, adjusting the tape on her bat’s handle, “Do not remember most of last night. I started putting down shots with Nicolas around ten and woke up in Nora’s bed twenty minutes ago.” She pulled her gloves on as she grinned at the memory; or, lack thereof.

The three Beaters exchanged stories from the game last night, as well as the club after, while warming up. Hollie added in her comments where she could, but between the bench warming and the leaving early she didn’t have too much to say.

Even though she knew she probably wouldn’t see much game time this season, Hollie still practiced just as hard as everyone else on her team, knowing that she wanted to be in peak condition for when she got subbed in. At first it had been a little sad going from the Slytherin team captain at Hogwarts to being back at the bottom of a team, but years later she was used to the feeling.

The three of them took their time getting ready to join the rest of the team. They took turns, one of them batting the other two stationary Bludgers. They didn’t have the magic in them to make choices on who to hit, were the same size and weight as regulation, and made for good practice. Sal would hit one towards the two girls, and they’d smack it back to see how far past him they could make it.

After they felt sufficiently warmed up, they made their way over to where the team had broken off into two groups. Roxanne led Nicholas and Charlotte into high speed goal attempts. One of the two Chasers would make an attempt, and Roxanne would have to block it and throw it back in a matter of seconds, all while avoiding the other Chaser’s goal attempt.

Elijah Matthews – the team’s reserve Keeper – did the same with Nora and the team’s third regular Chaser, Terrence Knott. The two were currently giving the boy quite a run for his money, being so new and fresh to the team. Even though he was only Roxanne’s backup, he was still managing to keep quite a notable number of Quaffles out of the goals, so Hollie was impressed. He, like Hollie, hadn’t gotten any game time the previous night.

Hollie watched as Roxanne easily swerved back and forth to block most of Nicholas and Charlotte’s goal attempts. She moved so smoothly through the air it seemed as if gravity didn’t apply to her, all with a smile that showed how much she was truly enjoying the practice, despite how tired she must have been.

They all winced as their coach blew into his whistle again. Out of the corner of her eye she could see where Logan and Alec had quickly stopped their high speed chase around the pitch.

He barked out directions to everyone. “It’s scrimmage time you lot!” The whole team groaned. Their scrimmages could last for hours. “Oh, save it! I saw The Prophet! Another bloody Muggle club? No one even cared that we bloody won the game after that ridiculous article!” No one argued after his reveal. Hollie snuck a small peek over to Roxanne, whose face had quickly dropped to a frown. “That’s right. Liv and Finnigan, you’re with Weasley; Sal, you’re with Matthews. Since Weasley gets two Beaters, Avery’ll go with you as well. Williams? Williams!”

Alec was staring off at a spot in the air, clearly not listening. The whole team stifled their laughter as he finally spun around and looked at the coach expectedly.

“Bloody hell, Williams. More grey hair every bloody day, all because of you;” he was muttering under his breath as Alec flew over to Roxanne and Logan flew over to talk to Nora.

Roxanne led her half of the team over near the visitor goal post. Before Hollie realized fully what was happening, Roxanne had snaked her arm around her shoulder, and pulled her flush up against her, their brooms parallel. It took her a very confused few seconds before she realized that Alec had done the same on the other side, and their mini-team was pulling into a huddle to listen to Roxanne give out orders. As she felt Roxanne’s fingers dance excitedly on her shoulder, she could only hear key phrases like ‘Finnigan’ and ‘defense’ as she felt each eager tap.

Hollie managed to not make any noise at the sudden loss of Roxanne pressed against her as the girl flew off towards the goal posts. However, the body pressed against her other side stayed put.

“You’re so bloody transparent; it’s so beautiful to watch,” Alec said into her ear in a hushed voice.

“I hate you,” Hollie shoved him off, scowling as he laughed. She tried to push away the feeling stirring in her stomach at the slightest touch from Roxanne down as she put her full focus into the scrimmage at hand.

She watched as Charlotte and Nicholas hovered across from Terrence and Nora, all four waiting for the coach to blow his menacing whistle and throw up the Quaffle. The Snitch and the Bludgers were already floating about, and Hollie was squinting around the field to find one. These were the small moments Hollie craved, actually being able to show her in-game strengths and maybe get put in a little bit more of game time.

Hollie snuck one last glance around to Roxanne. Another flash of hands on legs and fingers in hair shot through her mind, distracting her from the first few seconds of the Quaffle struggle. Terrence and Charlotte fought each other off in the air for the Quaffle before Terrence managed to strong arm it out of her hands. He shot forward on his Firebolt 6, a sponsorship donation that everyone on the team had. She watched as Terrence and Nora passed expertly back and forth to each other, quickly flying towards the goalposts and Roxanne.

Roxanne easily stopped his goal attempt, and tossed the Quaffle to Charlotte. The scrimmage went back and forth for a while, giving all of the Chasers chances to work on two person flying techniques. Though it would be easy for one team to forfeit purposely, getting practice done and over with, once they actually got things going the whole team was having a good time. Hollie even started enjoying herself despite her exhaustion, smiling as she watched Terrence and Logan narrowly avoid her Bludger attempts. She hoped their coach was watching everything, and not just the main Quaffle gameplay.

With Roxanne as their Keeper, Charlotte and Nicholas managed to pull their half of the team slightly ahead in points, edging towards the one hundred point goal faster. Hollie was already imagining going home and sleeping off the rest of her miserable night, and then possibly meeting back up with Alec and Charlotte later that evening, depending on the state of Charlotte’s house when she got home to relieve the babysitter.

However, it quickly became apparent that the points wouldn’t matter as Alec and Logan shot off in the same direction. The team stopped playing to watch the two men chase after the small golden ball. Hollie knew she could never be a Seeker as she couldn’t even see the thing.

They all watched with baited breath as Alec scooted forward on his broom, getting the few inches ahead of Logan that he needed to wrap his fingers around the struggling Snitch.

Hollie flew over toward Alec and reached him at the same time Charlotte did. The two girls cheered as they crashed into a three person hug. It quickly made it up to a six person clump of people as Roxanne, Nicholas, and Livvy joined the mass. Alec was holding the Snitch above his head cheering as well, so Hollie found herself smashed into his armpit, with random limbs wrapping around her.

They broke apart after their coach started screaming into his whistle, telling them to get off the field before he changed his mind about letting them leave early. Not wanting to test his patience, the six flew off towards the locker rooms. Livvy and Roxanne both headed straight for the girls’ locker rooms, while Hollie stopped to wait and congratulate Alec again. When she saw Charlotte was waiting for her, she waved her off with the promise to get in touch if any plans were made.

Nicholas patted Alec on the back in congratulations before heading to the boys’ room, leaving just Hollie and Alec left on the edge of the field.

“Nice grab up there,” Hollie said with a grin when he walked up next to her. “Coach will have to put you in; you know he saw that catch.”

Alec nodded. “Thanks Hollie. I only beat Logan because he was still pretty sloshed from yesterday. He reeked of it while we were warming up and – he was pretty good at hiding it – but he was drifting all over the place during the scrimmage.”

Hollie gave him a small nod back, not sure how to stop Alec’s self-put-down. She clapped him on the shoulder and offered drinks at the Leaky Cauldron later that night with her and possibly Charlotte, after a much needed nap. After he accepted, she waved and headed towards the girls’ locker rooms.

Expecting the room to be empty by the time she got there, Hollie was surprised to see one of her teammates still sitting on the bench. Her heart picked up as she watched Roxanne frantically flip through the copy of that morning’s Daily Prophet.

“Everything okay?” was all Hollie could manage to get out of her mouth.

Roxanne looked up, surprised by her voice. “Yeah. Well, yeah, now it is.” She set down the folded up copy of The Daily Prophet. “Hollie,” Hollie blinked for a few discreet seconds at the way it felt to hear Roxanne say her name so softly. “I’m so sorry about what happened last night.”

Hollie’s eyes shot open and made contact with Roxanne’s. It took her an obvious moment to bring her face back to neutral as she lied her arse off to the girl in front of her; “What about last night?”

“What you walked in on in the boys’ loo.”

Way to not beat around the bush, Hollie thought to herself. She tried to find words to say ‘it’s okay,’ or ‘no biggie,’ or anything that would dismiss the way she truly felt about it and not let Roxanne in on anything.

“It’s fine, Roxanne, I was pretty plastered… I don’t really remember that much,” Hollie lied easily when she found her words.

Roxanne nodded. “Thanks for not saying anything, either,” she gestured towards the copy of The Prophet sitting on the bench next to her. “The only thing they got were a few candid’s of Nicholas and Livvy, but nothing too bad.” She then frowned. “Also, you shouldn’t have been apparating if you had that much to drink. Next time, find one of us; we all split Muggle cabs home on nights like yesterday.”

Hollie suppressed a smile and rolled her eyes, ignoring the way her heart lurched at the feeling of Roxanne worrying about her. Truthfully she had not had nearly enough to worry about not being able to apparate. “I’ll keep that in mind. I’ll see you later, Roxanne.” She waved goodbye the other girl, heading for the team’s private Floo.

“Bye, Hollie.” Roxanne gave her a warm smile as she waved back. She’d taken her dark hair down and was running her fingers through it, getting the wind tangles sorted out.

Hollie was surprised she didn’t end up in Finland or Japan with how badly she butchered her address in the Floo. She was a mess.


	2. Bad Press

“Charlotte couldn’t make it?” Alec asked as he slid onto the stool next to Hollie. He brushed his dark blonde curls out of his face as he signaled to the bartender for one of whatever Hollie was drinking.  
  
Hollie grinned. “I quote: These little terrors were so horrible for the sitter that I’m punishing them with Family Muggle Game Night. Have fun living the single life while I torture my children with Monopoly.”  
  
Alec’s laughter filled the bar as they joked about how much Charlotte’s two little ones were probably complaining at the moment. Hollie always had a lot of respect for Charlotte. She was able to be at every practice and play her hardest, as well as be a full time single mom of a six and nine year old. Hollie didn’t know how she managed, but she had definitely earned her media coined nickname, ‘Supermum’.  
  
“Practice went well today,” Hollie said as a lull fell over the pair. “I’m still proud of you for beating Avery, sloshed or not.”  
  
A small blush ran up the back of Alec’s neck. “Thanks Hollie. I don’t think it’ll be enough to get a starting spot; he’s such a fan favorite, and Coach knows we’d lose spectators if he didn’t play.”  
  
Hollie frowned. She knew all too well the way the Professional Quidditch League worked, having been a part of it for five years now. While the game should always be the most important thing, it was well known amongst the players that sometimes popularity won over skills. In the end the revenue brought in would always rank above.  
  
“You’ve been in the league longer than me, Hollie; you know how it works,” he added. He had been her rock for so long; he’d been there for her when she thought she’d get a spot on the team until Salvador was transferred from Mexico. She’d been so upset she was on the verge of a transfer request herself until Alec had stopped her. “Speaking of practice…”  
  
His sentence trailed off as he raised his eyebrows at her. She narrowed her eyes at him, waiting to see where he was going. If she could wrangle her way into avoiding another intoxicated feelings talk at Alec, she would.  
  
Hollie broke before Alec. “Elijah is doing great! Did you see the way—”  
  
“What happened at the bar after you left us last night?” Alec interrupted her. Hollie swore internally. “I’ve seen you drunk and I’ve seen you hung-over as hell and that was not hung-over red eyes.”  
  
“It was nothing,” Hollie tried to lie away.  
  
“I’m not going to do the thing where you lie to me until you get five more drinks in you and spill everything; tell me now so you don’t drunk cry,” Alec argued back.  
  
Hollie huffed. “I don’t drunk cry.”  
  
“Remember the time in Portree—”  
  
“They were shagging in the loo!” Hollie interrupted him with a hissed confession. Admitting to anything would be better than letting Alec relive the Portree incident. Again. She brought her hand up to her mouth as the bluntness caught up with her.  
  
Alec’s face softened as the information caught up with him. “I’m sorry.”  
  
Hollie pursed her lips. “It’s not like I didn’t know it was going on. The way he looks at her… how she looks at him when no one’s looking…” Hollie buried her face in her hands and shook her head, trying to get the visual out of her mind forever. It was different when she had to see it. To see the girl she had such strong feelings for so enthralled in someone else.  
  
“Still, not pleasant.” Alec patted her back as she rubbed her tired eyes with balled up fists.  
  
“She apologized after practice,” Hollie confided in him when she could tell he didn’t know what else to say. “She bloody apologized, and thanked me for not telling the paparazzi. She saw me. She saw me sneak through the loo and knows so little of me that she thought I’d rat her out to the bloody paparazzi. And here I am, drinking for the second night in a row and trying not to think about her all the damn time. What the hell is my problem?”  
  
“Dopamine,” Alec said with a small grin. “Racing heart, sweaty hands, and flushed skin.”  
  
“I thought that was Estrogen?” Hollie finally smiled at him. She knew the quiet night out with Alec was exactly what she needed.  
  
“Maybe if you were the one shagging her,” Alec replied, causing Hollie to snort into her drink in surprise. “Dopamine is the love part and Estrogen is the other part.”  
  
“And where do you fall in to all of this, little Ravenclaw showoff?” Hollie asked, sipping her drink and feeling her mood finally start to lift.  
  
“Floating above in amusement and pity,” he said giddily. When Hollie didn’t laugh he only grinned more and added, “Kidding. You know I know this is miserable for you.”  
  
It’s after another shot of straight Firewhisky had settled through her that Hollie finally said, “It just… it made it so much more real, seeing them. We all knew it was going on.”  
  
Alec threw his arm over her shoulder and pulled her into a one armed hug. “If it helps, I know you saw how she avoided him today; she wasn’t thrilled when she found out he was going with her to Tutshill Primary. She’ll be babysitting him along with the kids. Still a bummer I’m not going; it’d be quite a trip down memory lane.”  
  
“Our dads homeschooled us for primary education,” Hollie added in, wondering why she’d never known that about Alec. “There aren’t many magic primary schools in Ireland.” Hollie smiled at the memory of her dads trying to mix in a balance of Muggle and Magical lessons to prepare her and her older brother whether or not they’d get Hogwarts letters. One memory that always made her smile was her dad Seamus trying to teach them a simple potion and her papa Dean hiding behind the couch before he’d even started; much to the latter’s offence and the children’s enjoyment, every time. It didn’t help that her dad always boiled over or exploded the potion anyway.  
  
Of course, Hollie and her brother both got into Hogwarts, but both of her dads had one Muggle parent and they didn’t want to assume. Her older brother had been heading into his sixth year when she got her letter. Currently, he and his wife were off studying magical creatures of the Arctic Circle, so Hollie rarely heard from him.  
  
“Consider yourself lucky,” Alec said after he took a large drink. “I went because I was from Tutshill; it was just something you sent your magic kids to because it was there. But like you said, there aren’t many, so people from all over Britain would ship their kids there via Floo. It was such a privileged place; so many old families and upturned noses on parent’s night.”  
  
Hollie scrunched up her nose, smiling and feeling warm from the liquor. “You should be glad you’re not going back.”  
  
“Be fun to see my old teachers; show them that the Quidditch doodles they used to take away from me didn’t ‘get me nowhere’ in life.” Alec winked, drained his drink, and set the glass down on the bar top just a little too forcefully. The bartender glared at the pair. “Alas, we’re reserves.”  
  
“I’ll drink to that,” Hollie said as she held up her glass. “To bench warming, old hags with rulers, and straight girls that don’t love you back.” Alec picked up his empty one and clanked it with hers, before setting it back down. Hollie downed the rest of hers and slammed her glass to the bar.  
  
“Hear, hear!” Alec cheered and threw a fist in the air.  
  
The bartender cut them off.  
  
The pair stumbled out of The Leaky Cauldron a few moments later. It wouldn’t do the team any good to make problems, knowing the magic paparazzi were always lurking in Diagon Alley. Alec threw his arm lazily over Hollie’s shoulder as they walked happily down the quiet street, enjoying the mild buzz they had going. The shops of Diagon Alley had closed up for the night, leaving the magical street just lit by glowing lamps.  
  
It wasn’t long before the paparazzi revealed themselves behind a stack of empty owl cages. Hollie pointed just as a light flashed and a plump, balding man with an ancient looking magical camera came scurrying out. He stood in the middle of the road and gawked at the empty street behind them.  
  
“Just us, mate!” Alec called out, gesturing between Hollie and himself. The paparazzi man scowled as Alec talked to him about more random nothings, narrating the man’s every move; they hated being called out for the sleazy things they did.  
  
Hollie knew she didn’t have to worry about the couple candids he snapped before giving up on any other sightings. Pictures of a pair of tipsy reserve players wouldn’t make the man any money.  
  
“’s a good thing Char didn’t make it,” Alec said as they wandered around. “They’d love the ‘single mom out drinking’ shots of her, reserve or not.”  
  
Hollie nodded in agreement. It may have been the alcohol, but it gave her some mixed feelings knowing that the paparazzi wouldn’t bother to try to sell the pictures. Not that she wasn’t happy that her face wouldn’t be plastered front page of _The Daily Prophet_ , but it made it seem like she didn’t work just as hard to be on the team sometimes.  
  
Coach was right; they wanted the faces and the popularity.  
  
The pair let a comfortable silence lull over them as they made their way back to The Leaky Cauldron to Floo home. After a quick goodbye and a promise to see each other at practice later that week, Hollie called out her address and Floo’d home.  
  
*  
  
It was a few days later before practice when Hollie picked up the copy of _The Daily Prophet_ off the mat in front of her flat and flipped it to the sports section. As she had predicted, nothing had happened with the pictures the man had took of her and Alec. Still, since the league’s elimination rounds were set to start the following month, things were going to get even uglier in the print media.  
  
As she walked towards her tiny kitchen, coffee in hand, she stirred it as she read through the previous night’s wins and losses. This week was a favorite among fans; Rivals Week. The Tornados would be playing the Caerphilly Catapults the following afternoon, as they were the closest to Tutshill in location. She sat down and stirred a little bit more milk into her coffee as she skimmed the rankings, before moving on to the next page’s news.  
  
Hollie dropped her spoon onto the table as she stared at the large picture of Roxanne and Logan. They were standing in the middle of a kiddie-sized Quidditch pitch hollering at each other. She watched as Logan would stumble, and point and shout at Roxanne. Roxanne would stare, shocked, at him, and bury her face in her hands. She read:  
  
  
 _ **Roxanne Weasley not saved from the cursed Tornados infamy: disaster strikes at Tutshill Village’s Primary School for Future Hogwarts Kids. Is this Keeper really playing gay for fame, or are Avery’s words just a load of drunken nonsense?**_  
  
 _Even the Tutshill Tornados Captain and press golden child, Roxanne Weasley, can’t avoid the rumor mill forever. Disaster struck at Tutshill Village’s Primary School for Future Hogwarts Kids, where, the team’s Keeper and Seeker, other press favorite Logan Avery, got in a heated argument as they were helping the young students learn to fly. Sources say that, while obviously intoxicated around the children, Avery shouted at Weasley about their supposed affairs, and how Weasley had been intimate with another female while they were in an ‘on’ point of their on and off fling._  
  
 _No news of the two’s undisclosed affairs had ever been brought to light before the moment at the primary school. Sources say Weasley froze up in shock and left the scene, confirming her actions with the other still unnamed female._  
  
 _Logan Avery was unavailable for commentary, as shortly after the Tutshill Seeker had fallen asleep in the school’s playground slide._  
  
 _Nicholas Higgins, Tornados Chaser and frequent news article favorite, commented that the team was unaware of Weasley and Avery’s alleged affairs. He went on to say that Roxanne stayed very professional at games and practice, and maybe she was seeing the mystery girl instead of Avery, either way she did not let it affect the team or game. Higgins did not know of Roxanne’s taste in women, but he was confident that the team would accept her whoever she was seeing, as they already had other gay members._  
  
 _News of Weasley’s_ supposed _sexuality raises many questions for this reporter. Is Weasley really homosexual, or is she using Avery’s frequent drunken ramblings to gain positive popularity for the tarnished Tornados reputation? Is she in a relationship with the other female that she had affairs with, or was it a drunken night to forget? Has the Keeper turned fully homosexual, or is she playing both sides of this game? Has Weasley’s drinking gotten as bad as Avery’s? One thing is certain. The children got more than they bargained for with the Tornados visit._  
  
  
Hollie stared at the page in front of her. She stared and she got angry. She was angry at the terrible wording of the article, making being gay seem like a choice and making Roxanne into the ‘at fault’ instead of the victim. She was angry at _The Prophet_ for publishing such rubbish. She was angry at Logan Avery for spilling Roxanne’s personal choices, secret or not. Angry that the news was playing off Avery’s intoxication around children as nothing, all so they could focus gossip on what one girl may or may not have done behind closed doors.  
  
But most of all, she was angry at herself for feeling the tiniest bit of hope at this miserable situation for Roxanne. She hated herself for thinking that this could be a percentage more chance with the girl she’d loved for so long, if Roxanne came out as being into men and women. (She got angry at the article all over again for not understanding that ‘bisexual’ was a thing.) It didn’t mean that Roxanne would like her, or that she would ever make a move towards Hollie, but any fraction of a chance that her heart could hold on to, selfishly or not, it would.  
  
Hollie crumpled up The Prophet and threw it into her fireplace. Their pre-game practice was going to be a mess of suicide drills with this news, as their coach had set up the meet-up to try to improve the team’s PR. She took her time to start getting ready, knowing that whatever her coach would be screaming about when she got there probably wouldn’t have to do with her.  
  
Hollie felt terrible for Roxanne. Whether or not she’d slept with the other girl the article mentioned, Logan had no right to announce that. The Prophet, while being widely known for not printing the most honest, balanced news, had sunk to a new low. She couldn’t believe the way the reporter talked about Roxanne. As if it was her fault that Logan got drunk and shouted things that may or may not have happened.  
  
Either way, Roxanne didn’t deserve it. The Prophet had been right about one thing; Roxanne was the team’s golden child. While people like Nora, Nicholas, Livvy, and especially Logan were always making the pages about being seen sauced in public, the opposite was true for Roxanne Weasley. She was always volunteering for Quidditch events, charity rallies, the whole works. She was even picked the previous year to play on England’s team for a chance at the World Cup.  
  
Of course, these were all reasons that Hollie had fallen so hardly for Roxanne. She was just such a genuine good person, such a ray of sunshine and a great Quidditch player.  
  
It just went to show how quickly the reporters ate up any negativity they could get their greedy hands on.  
  
Hollie got ready for practice in a sour mood. She never bothered to make her plain brown hair look too presentable, or to apply much makeup, as she’d only manage to sweat any effort off during practice. She tugged on one of her old Tushill jumpers as it was finally getting to be autumn enough to need it, followed by a pair of Quidditch trousers. After downing the rest of her coffee and brushing her teeth, she slipped into her trainers and headed over to the fireplace.  
  
Nerves began to build as Hollie headed towards her fireplace. She didn’t know what to expect as she called out the directions to the Tornados’ Floo after that mess of an article.  
  
The first thing Hollie heard as she brushed soot off of her practice clothing was their coach shouting at Logan. She couldn’t really miss it in the small room, and winced as she heard ‘ridiculous, children’s playground, and alcoholic,’ slid in through many, many curse words.  
  
As she looked around hastily for Roxanne, she saw Livvy, the twins, Sal, and Charlotte, standing off in a corner – Alec and her other teammates hadn’t arrived yet and she knew they’d be in a for the same shock she was.  
  
She finally found Roxanne when she moved towards the rest of her scared teammates, huddled together on the benches in the girl’s locker room. Everyone but Hollie seemed to be forgetting or ignoring that they were witnessing this all happen in the women’s locker room, too enthralled in seeing the drama unfold. Hollie’s heart broke at the sight of the tear tracks down Roxanne’s dark cheeks. She felt even worse about her selfish thoughts earlier as she watched the girl’s reputation falling apart because of the drunken man in front of her.  
  
Hollie saw red as their coach turned on Roxanne. In retrospect, she knew only thing that held her back from blindly defending Roxanne was the appearance of Alec in the locker room door. Thankfully Alec’s look reminded her that it would do no good to interrupt their coach when he yelled like this.  
  
She probably would have intervened anyway if he yelled at Roxanne for her actions. Even knowing that it’d give away her feelings if she did, she wouldn’t have been able to stand by and let that happen to Roxanne, feelings or not.  
  
Instead, their coach went on a tired and true rant about the team’s PR moments. “This is bloody ridiculous! Our Rival’s game against Caerphilly is _tomorrow_ , and you little heathens can’t stay bloody sober enough one damned night to keep things in your trousers and out of _The Prophet_!? That’s _it_! No one on this bloody team is allowed a single drop of booze tonight!” Nora and Nicholas both opened their mouths to protest. “Save it, Higgins!” he yelled at both of them. Hollie was surprised he didn’t whistle at them instead. “I’m doing a bloody Sobriety Spell on each and every one of you tomorrow before the damn match! If any of you have as much as one damned drop of alcohol in your system, you’re benched for the entire game! Is that clear enough for you ridiculous little hellions!?”  
  
No one dared look at Logan when Coach finally stopped shouting to catch his breath. Never before had things gotten so bad that their coach threatened Sobriety Spells, and they all knew that Logan could hardly function without a little bit in his system. The team had just looked past it for so long. No one could guess if the man would show up sober the next day, or if he wouldn’t be able to make it through and sacrifice the game for the drink.  
  
“What are you waiting for, a bloody owl with a birthday invitation!? Get out on the field before I make you run suicides all damned night! And shut up, Williams!”  
  
Alec stood up straight from where he had just leaned over to talk to Hollie. Though he hadn’t said anything, he kept his mouth shut and didn’t argue semantics. The whole team rushed out onto the field as Coach blew into the whistle angrily, nervous about the game to come the following day.  
  
As they made their way through the long, high ceiling corridor that they’d fly out of at home games, Hollie snuck a glance over to Roxanne. As she was already being quietly comforted by Livvy and Nora, Hollie knew it’d be better in the end to keep her words to herself. She knew that her feelings could easily show through her nervous demeanor if she actually had a full conversation with Roxanne, hence why she rarely talked about anything but Quidditch with the girl. Though it still made Hollie fume to see how hurt the girl was, she knew they just weren’t as close as she dreamed of to be able to comfort her in this dreadful situation.


	3. Big Game

“We’re at eighty percent capacity,” their coach announced the following afternoon in pre-game for the Rivals Match against the Caerphilly Catapults. “We never fill up this much pre-elimination rounds.” Hollie cringed in disgust as she watched him chew on the whistle stationed in his mouth. She could hear the buzz of the thousands of fans getting ready for the match today. With it being a Rivals game, she knew there would be a large mix of Tornados fans and Caerphilly fans, just because of the ease of travel between the two places.  
  
Thankfully in _The Prophet_ that morning, there had been no new _Sloshed Tornados_ headlines. Either the press had been actually focused on the matches that happened the previous day, or the whole team had listened and not went out partying the night before.  
  
Hollie snuck a glance over to Logan Avery as she listened to their coach go on about teamwork and _passing the damn Quaffle, Higgins_. He was one of the only ones seated and he looked terrible. His face was pale and clammy, and he already had a ring of sweat around his neck and armpits. She watched as he rubbed his index fingers into his temples to try to push away some of the pressure that must be building up in his head from the way Coach’s every word had a slight whistle to it. Even she was getting a headache.  
  
Hollie listened to their coach’s pregame speech with feigned interest. Not that she didn’t care, but she knew that she wouldn’t get subbed in. The Rival’s Games, more than any other game of the year, were popularity contests. People loved watching Olivia snark off to the other team’s Beaters (that were twice the size of her) and they would come to love Salvador’s big Hispanic brother persona just as much. That and she had heard most of Coach’s speeches and knew them by heart.  
  
Shifting on her feet, she looked towards Roxanne. Hollie hid a small smile as she watched Roxanne listen intently to their Coach’s speech, even though she’d been on the team two years longer than Hollie and probably had them memorized just as much. She watched as Roxanne tugged her dark hair into a neat, tight ponytail while she nodded along and added in captain’s directions where she saw fit.  
  
“Alright. You know I bloody love you lot for keeping it out of _The Prophet_ last night, but I’m still peeved off about the Tutshill Primary incident, so you’re all getting tested,” Coach said in conclusion of his speech. Hollie frowned when she saw Roxanne’s smile drop and her head drop sadly towards the ground. While _The Prophet_ hadn’t said anything about any drunken affairs from the previous night night, someone had written a gossip column about whether or not Roxanne was dating the girl she had hooked up with, or if it was a one night fling. They’d be speculating about it for weeks.  
  
Coach pulled his wand out of his sleeve, waving it over each one of the players to get tested for sobriety. If they passed, the tip of his wand would glow green; if they failed, red. Hollie waited behind Alec, after the normal team, for their coach to perform his spell on each of them. He turned and gave Hollie a small encouraging smile; they’d have plenty of time to catch up about the past few days announcements if Logan passed.  
  
It was with baited breath that the team waited while Logan got tested. He was in terrible shape. In addition to the sweat marks he couldn’t stand still; he was swaying on the spot as their coach pointed his wand at the man and muttered the incantation.  
  
 _The Prophet_ hadn’t had new Tornados news (except for the terrible gossip about Roxanne), and as a small green light glowed at the end of Coach’s wand, Logan Avery was granted permission to play. Nicholas cheered and clapped him on the back, wincing when Logan stumbled forward to grab his broom. As expected, the rest of the team passed – though it was with mild surprise for Nicholas and Nora – and the starters lined up to fly out onto the field.  
  
In the five years that Hollie had been a reserve player, she’d grown numb to the sounds of thousands of fans not cheering for her. Instead she chose to embrace it and feel happy for the way the team’s fans loved them. Their fans could get crazy; most of the Tutshill natives knew the regular team as common household names, but there were some of them that could recite stats of _everyone_ as if they were first year spells. As she, Alec, Charlotte, and Elijah all flew towards the special area built in the stands designated for reserve sub-ins – the dugout, they called it – she listened to the announcer read off all of her teammates’ names.  
  
After landing in the dugout, Hollie dropped down onto the bench next to Alec. The area was level with the three golden goalposts, so they could see most of the action pretty clearly. If fans wanted to spend enough – which towards finals some of them would – they could sit in the sectioned off area with the team.  
  
“Shall we discuss the white Hippogriff in the room, or should we wait for the match to start?” Alec tore her out of her trance at the fast pace of the warmup drills everyone was running. She looked at him with a single raised eyebrow.  
  
“You mean Hippogriff Avery being sober for the first match in ages? Or the other, terrible, heteronormative Hippogriff that proves how backwards in progress the gossiping Wizarding World is?” Hollie asked, tone dripping with sarcasm.  
  
“That one,” Alec answered with a snap of his fingers. “Though, don’t mind if I tune you out or suddenly fly off, as I’ll be watching the first Hippogriff very closely.”  
  
Hollie rolled her eyes. “There’s nothing to discuss.”  
  
“Please,” Alec retorted, not bothering to look at her. They were silent for a few moments as they watched the Quaffle tossup, cheering when Terrence Knott snagged it away from the Caerphilly captain. That would earn him big stats. The Tornados fan’s cheers filled the stands as Terrence shot towards the visitor goal posts.  
  
After finding Livvy and Sal in the air and tracking their motions for a few minutes, Hollie finally spoke. “There _is_ nothing to discuss. It was a rubbish article and I’m surprised Roxanne hasn’t released some kind of comment against it, or at the very least murdered Avery for it.”  
  
“Or, she hasn’t released any comments because it’s true,” Alec offered, also keeping his eyes on the game.  
  
Hollie, however, did take her eyes off the match, but just for a second. “You believe Avery!? That drunken arse that’s—  
  
“Holy white Hippogriff!” Alec’s cries interrupted her. “Avery!”  
  
A collective gasp filled the crowd as Logan Avery’s broomstick spiraled towards the ground. The announcer talked happily about a _Wronski Feint_ but the starters of the Tornados thankfully were not convinced. Hollie watched as Roxanne called to use their first official time-out and Sal and Nicholas shot off towards him.  
  
Thankfully, probably for his life, the way Logan had face-planted on his broom sent him in a corkscrew spiral down towards the ground, making it easy enough for Sal to get to him, quickly followed by Nicholas. A gasp of relief filled the stands as the two men stopped Logan from hurdling to his death.  
  
Roxanne and the rest of the players headed towards the dugout as Sal held Logan’s head up and slapped it. The commentator was making all of his own speculations, heavily based on the recent _Prophet_ article, as Sal and Nicholas finally resigned their attempts to wake him up and led him over to the dugout.  
  
The smacks to the face didn’t wake Logan Avery, but getting dropped on the dugout floor did.  
  
“Whassut?” he asked incoherently as he pressed one of his palms on the floor to sit up. “What’re you all doing in my bedroom? Oh, hey Roxy baby. Come back here.”  
  
“Shit, what the hell, Avery!?” Roxanne yelled, kicking at his trainers so he’d stand up. The man on the ground grunted and tried to crawl away. “The game’s been on for ten minutes! How are you bloody sloshed already?” Her dark eyes were wild when Roxanne scanned the team. Her eyes locked with Hollie’s for less than a second, before she shifted on to Alec. “Williams, get ready.”  
  
“NO! No no no, I’m f-fine!” Logan immediately tried to argue. He put his hands on the ground to try to stand as he said, “Just needed a lil’ bit to play. Had to hide it in—” he hiccupped, “hide it in my robes.”  
  
“Shit,” Roxanne said again, watching the way he finally crawled his way to his feet by climbing up Nicholas’ Quidditch uniform. Hollie felt frozen in her spot, helpless, wishing she could do something to fix the situation.  
  
Finally, their coach stood up. “Williams, sit down! Weasley, have you gone deaf?”  
  
Roxanne frowned. “I don’t give a damn who they’re cheering—”  
  
“Williams, sit!” Coach bellowed again, interrupting Roxanne. Alec, knowing that technically the coach was still the boss, dropped back on the bench between Hollie and Charlotte.  
  
Hollie looked up to Roxanne, feeling just as annoyed as she was. The girl was fuming. The whole lot of Tornados fans in the crowd were chanting “Avery, Avery!” as they waited for the Tornados time out to be done. They all wanted him back on the field to try to win for the team. The announcer was even going on about “hoping Avery gets a quick wakeup call so he can hop back in.”  
  
“What was the point of your damn Sobriety Spell if you’re just going to let him play!?” Roxanne yelled back.  
  
If she said she was surprised, Hollie would be lying. This was just the kind of example of what a popularity contest the Quidditch League was. Hollie patted a consoling hand on Alec’s, and turned to give him a small apologetic smile.  
  
The buzzer signaling The Tornados only had fifteen seconds to get on the field alerted everybody of their dwindling down time.  
  
“Weasley, drop it! I don’t give a damn what your problem is with Avery, but listen to that!” He pointed out towards the vast crowd. “If you don’t want to play with him then _you_ can sit out! My hands are tied, Weasley. He’s had a drink but there’s nothing I can do now that he started; I gotta make money. Now get in the air!” He shouted the last part as the final timer went off. The rest of the team, stumbling Logan included, shot off into the air to resume gameplay.  
  
Hollie watched as Roxanne stood and glared at their coach. She knew that the girl wanted to argue back how much of a rubbish call it had been, and how it was a low blow to bring up her history with Avery, but in the end the coach made the final call. Roxanne turned to Alec with an apologetic frown. Hollie’s pulse thudded as the girl turned to her, and Hollie managed what she hoped was a sympathetic look for Roxanne. With one final shake of her head, Roxanne mounted her broom and shot off towards the goalposts.  
  
The oblivious cheers as the game restarted disgusted Hollie. They had no idea the kind of person Logan really was, and here they were admiring him like he was some sort of jolly fun saint.  
  
A nudge in her shoulder broke Hollie out of her menacing glare at the game. She turned to Alec. “It’s bullshit,” she said.  
  
“It’s Professional Quidditch,” Alec replied, accepting his fate next to Hollie.  
  
When no issues or goals happened over the next few moments, Hollie settled into watching the game. Her heart still went out for Roxanne; she could see the girl seething at the goalposts, angrily throwing and kicking away every goal attempt. The Caerphilly Chasers were trying to take advantage of Roxanne’s obvious distraction and it wasn’t working. A thrum of pride went through Hollie.  
  
The game went on for a while with minimal scoring – professional matches could last from hours to days in rare cases, so Hollie settled back, tracking the movements of Olivia and Salvador when she wasn’t watching Roxanne.  
  
Hollie thought back to when she’d first joined the Tutshill reserve team. At the time Roxanne had just started making her name in the Quidditch industry; she’d just become the youngest Tornados captain in Tutshill history. Hollie had immediately bonded with Charlotte, the other new reserve. Charlotte was older by a few years, but just as nervous looking for a new start after her husband had run off, leaving her alone with two kids and no money.  
  
Roxanne Weasley had always been a source of various feelings for Hollie. Back at Hogwarts she remembered watching the rising Gryffindor star in her sixth and seventh year. Roxanne had been the Keeper for the Gryffindor team for only two years of her schooling, and an unstoppable force. Hollie had been in her second and third year at the time, so Roxanne was nothing more than an older, popular Prefect and Quidditch Captain to the young Slytherin Beater. Despite the age old rivalry between Gryffindor and Slytherin, Hollie always secretly admired Roxanne’s knack for Quidditch from afar.  
  
Of course, when Hollie graduated Hogwarts a few years after, she never expected to be drafted on to the very same team.  
  
She was never really sure when her feelings for Roxanne had turned from admiration to attraction. Somewhere along the lines of the polite smiles, casual friendly conversations, and a certain adorable knack for following the rules, Roxanne skipped her way onto Hollie’s radar.  
  
Her eyes trailed the players with feigned interest. Just as she suspected, the stands were filled with laughter as Salvador happily shouted in Spanish at the Caerphilly Beaters, fitting right in at the fun Rivals Match. She looked back to the goalposts again, ignoring her bubbling jealousy, and couldn’t help but smile at Roxanne’s laughter.  
  
“Avery’s… he’s—”  
  
Hollie tore her eyes away from the goalposts to where Alec was standing up, sentence trailing off in shock. She stood too, following his line of sight towards the field.  
  
She barely followed where Alec was staring before the loud collective gasp filled the stadium as Logan’s fist connected with the Caerphilly Seeker’s face.  
  
It was a blur of black and white robes and whistles as the referees stopped Logan from lunging off of his broom towards the opposing Seeker. The stands stood in a shocked silence as they watched Logan drunkenly attempt to struggle out of their grasps, small grunts of profanity escaping.  
  
Between the commentator’s extravagant narrations, everyone watched as the referees dragged Logan over to the Tornado’s dugout. In order to not be disqualified, Alec had to wait until they made it over – with great difficulty, due to the drunken struggling seeker – to fly out onto the pitch.  
  
Hollie didn’t get a chance to wish Alec luck as he shot off the second the three wizards landed on the sidelines. On the safety of the ground the referees finally placed a Stunning Spell on Logan, letting him fall to the ground with little care.  
  
“What the bloody… what happened!?” Hollie could hear their coach shouting along with the referees. She, however, watched where Alec chased after the Caerphilly reserve Seeker. With Logan’s struggling the Catapults had managed to get their reserve out faster, and she took over the chase the normal one had been in.  
  
“Alec, FLY!” Hollie shouted. Even though it got lost in the screams and shouts from the thousands of fans, she still cheered on her friend as he fought his way forward towards the Snitch.  
  
Hollie didn’t know much about the Caerphilly reserve team; the only thing she could tell was that the Seeker was _fast_. The girl was small and expertly weaved in and out through Sal and Livvy’s Bludger attempts.  
  
As the opposing Seeker closed her fingers around the Snitch and sealed the Tornados fate, Logan vomited on the box floor.  
  
*  
  
Coach was seething. His cheeks were red, and the skin under his chin was shaking. He had a copy of _The Daily Prophet_ clenched between his pudgy fingers, nearly tearing it from the grip he had.  
  
“ _Caerphilly ‘launches’ the Tornados into their first loss of the season_ ,” he spat out, reading off the wrinkled article that the whole team had already read. No one spoke as the paper in front of him shook in his rage. “ _Disaster with Avery goes overboard._ No bloody right the _disaster_ went overboard!” he yelled at the paper. “My bloody Seeker is at St. _freaking_ Mungo’s for rehabilitation!”  
  
No one on the team ever understood why or how their coach managed to watch his language so much whenever he was ranting.  
  
The paper was thrown to the ground as their coach looked around the room, breathing angrily. They met in his office connected conference room as they wouldn’t have practice the day after a match.  
  
Things had happened in a blur after the Tornados lost the Rival’s Game. Magical cameras got piles of photos of Logan being taken away by Healers and hauled off to St. Mungo’s. Though they were Sports Healers – there at the match in case someone got hurt, or punched in the face – the public knew that Logan had been taken away for being sloshed on the field.  
  
Hollie and the rest of the team all got letters from their team’s big sponsors – _Flyte and Barker_ and _Firebolt_ – that next morning, asking for a meeting to talk about the press from the disastrous match.  
  
Coach stopped shouting when a knock on the door interrupted him. Hollie sat up straighter in her chair and watched as her teammates did the same. Nora and Livvy were nursing Styrofoam cups of coffee, hangover circles dark under their eyes. Hollie was avoiding looking at Roxanne, where she was sure she too was nursing a cup of coffee, and puffy tear circles would be sure to be present on her face. Alec was next to her, ringing his fingers together.  
  
Subtly, Hollie slid her hand across the table and shoved his hands off of it, just as their sponsor Horace Flyte entered the room.  
  
After everything was sorted and Logan was carried off, Hollie had invited Alec and Charlotte over for drinks. Charlotte had to decline for her kids, but Alec – upset and feeling responsible – had taken her up on the offer. Even though Hollie had explained to him every way that the loss was not his fault, he had still drunkenly waxed on about how he felt like he’d let everyone down.  
  
Mr. Flyte stood next to their coach and cleared his throat. “Needless to say, things have gotten out of hand.”  
  
Coach turned. “I’ve just spoken to Avery’s Healers this morning. He’s consented to treatment and will be able to play in six to eight weeks, pending cooperation.”  
  
“That’s excellent to hear, Figby,” Mr. Flyte said with a grimace. Hollie used the second to finally steal a glance at Roxanne.  
  
Roxanne, who was staring right back at her. She felt instantly transparent, as if Roxanne was waiting for her to look; as if Roxanne knew. Her heart thudded as she looked back to the table, clenching her hands together in her lap.  
  
Flyte crossed his arms as he listened to their coach sputter through an explanation of changes. He leaned back on his heels and grinned, holding up a hand to stop him when he seemingly had enough. “We at Flyte and Barker have discussed through the night. Firebolt is already in talks of pulling their assets from your team.”  
  
Their coach’s face was nearly purple. “We are aware.”  
  
The man turned to address the team as a whole again. “At Flyte and Barker, we strive to be able to provide brooms to people who are willing to pay the right price for high quality sporting equipment. That being said, having our name associated with – pardon my bluntness – such a disgrace lately…” He paused to look over the group. “We’re giving you one last chance, Tornados. Don’t ruin it.”  
  
Coach gave him the most reluctant thanks he could manage, before ushering the man out. No one dared to talk as he turned back around.  
  
“Get the hell out of my office!”  
  
A clutter of chairs scraping and muttered voices filled the room. Hollie looked towards the ground as she raced out, still worried about the way Roxanne had caught her glance.  
  
However, she had no such luck as a hand wrapped around her arm and pulled her into the hallway away from the team.  
  
Figuring it was Alec, Hollie suspected her face was embarrassingly comical as she came face to face with Roxanne.  
  
“Hollie,” Roxanne started. Hollie could tell she was nervous, but it was nothing compared to the way her own adrenaline had skyrocketed.  
  
“Roxanne—”was all Hollie could manage to get out for a few moments. Roxanne waited, a small look of entertained confusion starting to form. “Roxanne, hi! How’s everything?”  
  
Stupid, stupid. Everything was terrible for Roxanne at the moment; Hollie felt like an idiot. Just that morning the offending article had written how Avery’s drinking was probably in sadness about Roxanne leaving him for a girl.  
  
Roxanne, ever patient and polite, said, “I’m doing okay, considering.” Hollie could see the sadness flash in her eyes. She wondered for a moment how much it was hurting her to hold it back, and if there was a way – in some world – to take that feeling away from the girl in front of her.  
  
Hollie knew she was staring. Shaking out of her revere, she followed up with, “Is there something I can help you with?”  
  
Her heart thudded at the way Roxanne smiled. What she’d give to see that all the time. “Actually, yes. Though, feel free to say no…” Roxanne’s sentence trailed off.  
  
She doubted there was ever a thing that Roxanne could need that Hollie would deny her.  
  
Roxanne opened her mouth, cringed, and shut it. Hollie blinked as she watched Roxanne take a deep breath, as if bracing herself. Letting it out, she looked to Hollie and asked, “Will you be my girlfriend?”


	4. Fake Date

Hollie blinked.  
  
Her brain was moving at a rapid rate, but none of the information was forming into words or thoughts. She wasn’t sure if she had heard Roxanne’s question correctly, or if her mind was just failing to string the words together to form a question.  
  
“Well, fake girlfriend,” Roxanne said when Hollie failed to come up with words.  
  
Hollie blinked again. “Your… your what?” she replied, feeling like her brain was fizzling out.  
  
“Pretend to be my girlfriend for the press. Just until this rubbish with _The Prophet_ and Avery blows over. It was Livvy’s idea. Kind of brilliant considering her and Nora were both sloshed out of their minds,” Roxanne explained, not really explaining anything.  
  
“Livvy’s idea—” Hollie let her sentence trail off, not trusting her mouth anymore. “For us to date?” she finished weakly when Roxanne didn’t reply. In all the ways Hollie had pictured this very conversation happening, this was not the way things had panned out in her head.  
  
“Fake date,” Roxanne clarified.  
  
“Fake date,” Hollie repeated, processing the sentence. She stared at Roxanne as her confusion only multiplied. “Fake date?”  
  
“Like I said, it was Liv’s idea. _The Prophet_ published that rubbish saying I was dating that girl…” her sentence trailed off with the idea in the air. “You are single, right? Dammit I told them you were seeing Williams.” Roxanne huffed in frustration, looking behind Hollie.  
  
“Alec?” Hollie asked, looking back where Roxanne had just glanced. All of their teammates had already left, undoubtedly to avoid Coach yelling at them anymore. “Alec doesn’t… Alec and I are most certainly not a thing,” Hollie finally replied. “You want me to pretend to be the girl from the _Prophet_ article? Why?”  
  
Hollie hated the way Roxanne’s face dropped. “They won’t believe any statement I release about it being nothing. I talked to my aunt – she used to be a sports reporter – she told me that it’d probably make it worse if I tried to claim that the night with Logan and the other girl meant nothing. They see Avery getting help, and they see I’m to blame.” Her words were sad.  
  
“How would we—” Hollie couldn’t believe she was considering this. This was every disaster romantic comedy waiting to happen. Well, she could believe; it was Roxanne asking. “Would you just hold a press conference and announce it?”  
  
Her heart thumped at the way Roxanne smiled at her. “Even better. We go on a date tonight.”  
  
*  
  
“That is a terrible idea,” Alec said. “Even Lizzie can see what a terrible idea that is, and she’s six.”  
  
“Terrible!” Lizzie shouted, giggling like she was involved with what the adults were saying. Alec chuckled and pushed her higher on the swing. Hollie, sitting still on the other swing, glanced over to where Jennifer, Charlotte’s nine year old, was sitting in the grass drawing. Charlotte was inside gathering up lunch, having insisted that as long as the pair watched the girls she was happy to put things together without help. After her conversation with Roxanne, Hollie had insisted a lunch to talk to her friends and to get their advice. With the rest of the afternoon and night off from practice – Coach was still too angry to schedule it – Hollie didn’t want to spend the whole afternoon panicking, so they planned a lunch at Charlotte’s new house to catch up.  
  
Obviously, Alec had found the entire idea dreadful.  
  
“How do you think this is going to turn out, Hollie?” he asked after Lizzie jumped off the swing and ran over to her sister. “Do you think you’re just going to be able to hide your feelings forever? The paparazzi will go nuts over you.”  
  
“It’s just for a couple of weeks,” Hollie argued. In truth, she had no idea. Roxanne told her they’d discuss more at dinner, which was steadily approaching in a few hours’ time. “Maybe this is just what I need to get this… her…. out of my system.” She tried not to let her voice sound desperate.  
  
“And then what? You ‘break up’ and go back to being teammates? How do you think the press will like that? And what about when Avery gets out of rehab?” Always the voice of reason, Alec was. “You don’t think you’re being a little _too_ selfless here?”  
  
“Too selfless?” Hollie asked.  
  
“You’re going to be waltzing right into the very spotlight you’ve worked so hard to stay out of. All they’re going to see you as is the girl that Roxanne left Avery for,” Alec explained. “Think about your career. Your own future.”  
  
Hollie frowned. In the rush of Roxanne needing help, she hadn’t thought about what it would do and change for the future of her Quidditch career. She remembered the mix of feelings at the paparazzi not even bothering with them when they were walking through Diagon Alley. She thought about the lies and stretched truths that _The_ _Prophet_ published.  
  
She also thought about the way Roxanne had smiled in relief and hugged her when she said yes.  
  
“I don’t have to think about it. I already told her I would,” Hollie replied, trying to make her words sound as sure as she was feeling.  
  
She could tell Alec was about to protest further, but Charlotte came out levitating a tray of sandwiches, interrupting him. Hollie stood to walk over to the table on the patio. “It’ll be fine, Alec. We’ll go out to dinner, Roxanne will speak to the paparazzi and an article will get published, and it’ll die down when they have nothing to speculate about our relationship.” The words felt strange coming from her mouth.  
  
Hollie understood Alec’s concerns and she was grateful for them. She knew he was just looking out for her. She also knew that this was her chance to, just for a few moments of her life, know what it was like to be close to the girl she’d fancied for so long.  
  
“I’m sure Hollie’s made the right choice, no matter how terrible it may be,” Charlotte said as everyone gathered around the plastic furniture.  
  
“Terrible!” Lizzie cheered. She reached towards the middle of the table and grabbed a sandwich off the heaping plate, oblivious. Alec’s laughter filled the backyard as he and the six year old chanted ‘terrible’.  
  
“Terrible influence is more like it,” Charlotte muttered as she took the seat next to Hollie. “She’ll be wound up for days.”  
  
Hollie laughed. “It’s nice though, seeing them laughing and enjoying the outside again.” She remembered to the first few times she’d visited Charlotte. Back when the woman and her two small daughters lived in a cramped flat haunted with memories of a man that wasn’t coming back. They’d never heard from her ex-husband, and without the child support Charlotte couldn’t afford many toys, so the girls learned to cherish their things once their mum made it into the Quidditch world.  
  
Charlotte smiled, likely thinking the same thing as Hollie. “You have no idea. Hearing them running around the halls and stairs screaming at eachother is like music.” She chuckled. “Sometimes. Sometimes they’re terrors.”  
  
They settled in to their lunches, laughing easily at the idle conversation. Hollie picked at hers, feeling nervous at Alec’s warnings. Every typical story of a pretend relationship she’d heard ended in the pair falling in love, but that wouldn’t be the case. Roxanne didn’t like girls, and just needed a favor to get out of the paparazzi ridicule. It was different.  
  
“I have just the thing you could wear on your _date_ tonight,” Charlotte teased when they finished eating.  
  
“You’re going on a date, Hollie?” Jennifer asked, looking up from her drawing, suddenly interested in what the adults were talking about. “Is he cute?”  
  
“ _She’s_ very pretty,” Hollie replied with a small smile.  
  
“What’s her name?” the girl asked, a curious expression forming.  
  
Hollie looked to Charlotte, unsure if she should keep going. Charlotte only shrugged.  
  
“Her name is Roxanne. She plays Quidditch with me, your mum, and Alec,” Hollie explained.  
  
“Do you _fancy_ her?” Jennifer teased, sitting up in her chair.  
  
Alec laughed so loudly Hollie threw her sandwich crust at him.  
  
*  
  
Roxanne had taken care of all of the reservation arrangements at the restaurant, so Hollie had no idea what to expect when she Apparated onto the sidewalk in the heart of Tutshill Village that evening. Living near the Tornados Stadium had its perks as Hollie was familiar with most of the shops and eateries in the village, but she never really frequented the fine dining establishments. The magical street was bustling with evening shoppers and diners, going about their day without Quidditch as entertainment.  
  
Hollie glanced around and saw a stand of newspapers and magazines, both Muggle and magical. She was a bit early, and wanted to walk off the feeling that Apparating always left in the pit of her stomach before getting to the restaurant. She browsed over the magazines with still pictures with feigned interest, grabbing instead for the new copy of _Witch Weekly_. Skimming over the cover stories, she gave a silent cheer that there was nothing published about _any_ of the Tornados girls. The cover had the new Seeker from the Harpies, successfully steering clear of the recent drama that was happening for the Tutshill team. Shockingly, with the nature of a typical female gossip magazine, _Witch Weekly_ always managed to publish better thought out articles than _The Daily Prophet_.  
  
Which, the Tornados didn’t get so lucky with.  
  
Hollie looked again at the article that talked about the Tornados loss, and went on with speculations about Avery’s situation. They talked what it would do for team rankings, for Fantasy Quidditch team points, and so on.  
  
Giving up on the print media for the evening, Hollie walked the busy street towards the restaurant Roxanne had picked out. She kept her eyes peeled for the girl, having promised to meet her outside to ‘stir up some talking’. Hollie couldn’t help but think _here we go_ to herself, knowing this was the very last moment she could have turned back, and knowing she wouldn’t.  
  
Approaching the restaurant, Hollie knew that the feeling in her stomach wasn’t from Apparating anymore. As she walked up to the girl in the pretty blue dress and tapped her shoulder, she prayed that the first thing out of her mouth would be words.  
  
“Hollie, hi!” Roxanne greeted her, instantly pulling her into a hug. She was a hugger, Hollie processed as this was the second one she had received today. The second time that day her heart had nearly thumped itself out of her chest.  
  
“Hi, Roxanne,” Hollie said back, sure that her voice would give everything away in one sentence. “You look great.” Hollie used the compliment to glance down at the way the blue dress hugged the girl’s curves, before flowing out and then stopping at her knees. “Very fitting color.”  
  
Roxanne laughed, making Hollie’s palms sweat and heart race. She could hear Alec mocking about dopamine in the back of her head. “Always have to cheer for the team in one way or another. You look nice, too.”  
  
Hollie looked down to the black dress that Charlotte had lent her. Charlotte had been right; it contrasted with her pale skin and hugged her torso just right. “Thanks. Char picked it – I can’t dress nice like this to save my life. It’s all Quidditch shirts and sweats.”  
  
Roxanne chuckled again. “I’ve got us a table reserved,” she added. “Shall we?”  
  
Hollie stared down towards where Roxanne was offering her hand for the taking. She didn’t know if she could manage to make herself any more transparent than wiping her nervous hands off on her dress before reaching out to intertwine her fingers with Roxanne’s, but she knew it would probably happen. The night was young.  
  
Roxanne’s hand squeezed hers as their fingers adjusted together, before Hollie felt her arm being tugged along. She tore her eyes away from where she was staring at their linked hands, and looked up to see Roxanne giggling to herself. Hollie finally let herself be tugged along and into the restaurant.  
  
Mind still buzzing from the hand holding, Hollie let Roxanne speak to the maître d.  
  
“Reservation under Weasley for two,” Roxanne told the man.  
  
Hollie figured Roxanne must be used to it, but as she watched the way the man looked up with a small eyebrow furrow, she figured the last name was familiar. Hollie had lessons in school about Roxanne’s uncle Ron Weasley and company, as did everyone else who attended their History of Magic classes. The man was older, stocky and balding; Hollie ventured a guess that he’d known her uncle.  
  
“Right this way, Miss Weasley.” His voice was a sneered polite. As he scurried off ahead of the girls, Hollie made eye contact with Roxanne. Roxanne’s face was apologetic, making Hollie offer her a smile as to say it didn’t bother her.  
  
The man muttered off something about a soup special, before rushing away and leaving them to settle into their seats. Hollie carefully unfolded her napkin and placed it in her lap, thankful that she could finally wipe the sweat off her hands.  
  
Silence settled around the girls as they got situated in their seats. The restaurant wasn’t too full, so the quiet instantly felt awkward.  
  
“You know I’m a lesbian, right?” Hollie asked, finally not being able to take the quiet.  
  
Roxanne looked up from placing her own napkin in her lap. Hollie had caught her off guard after the interaction with the bitter man. “Yes?” She phrased it as a question. “I’m pretty sure that’s why Livvy told me to ask you. And because I’m pretty sure she wants to date Nicholas… or Nora, maybe, I don’t know anymore… and doesn’t want to get mixed in.”  
  
Hollie furrowed her eyebrows. “Why’d you ask if I was seeing Alec?”  
  
Roxanne laughed. “You looked really confused when I asked. I was just making sure.”  
  
The waiter came to their table for drink orders, putting the conversation to a halt. All smiles and suggestions, he was already improving the restaurant from the host.  
  
“Firewhisky and cola,” Hollie replied, hoping the liquid courage would help tremendously with the progress of the night.  
  
Roxanne looked across the table with a raised eyebrow. “Just water,” she said when the waiter turned to her. When he smiled and wrote it down, Roxanne chuckled and said, “You know we do have practice tomorrow morning, right?”  
  
Hollie stifled her laugh, smiling along with Roxanne. “I’ll switch to water after one,” she compromised.  
  
Roxanne laughed and shook her head. The waiter nodded, and left them to look at the menu. Hollie used the time to try to think of things to ask Roxanne about how long the stunt would take, and anything to get more information without being painfully obvious.  
  
“What house were you in at Hogwarts?” Roxanne’s voice cut through Hollie’s pretending to read the menu. She looked up and saw the other girl smiling.  
  
“Slytherin,” Hollie answered, grateful that her drink had just arrived so she didn’t have to speak again.  
  
“Uh oh. I was a Gryffindor.” Roxanne grinned.  
  
“I know,” Hollie replied instantly. Her words caught up with her a second later, and she hastily added on, “I mean, I remember you from school. Kind of. From Quidditch mostly.”  
  
“Aah,” Roxanne said. “That explains it. I tried to distance myself from the Slytherin Quidditch players as much as possible for the two years I played.”  
  
Hollie chuckled. “I was still a newbie when you were captain. That and you were a Prefect, so all of the older Slytherins used to tell us horror stories about the Gryffindor ones taking away points for no reason.”  
  
“Really?” Roxanne laughed. “That’s hilarious.”  
  
Hollie smiled and nodded. “I played every year I could, and I made it as captain my fifth year. And I definitely didn’t make being a Prefect.”  
  
“I only played the two years,” Roxanne said. When Hollie furrowed her eyebrows in surprise, she added, “My older brother was on the team and he was too much of an arse to let me try out.”  
  
“Are you serious?” Hollie felt her eyes widen. She remembered her own older brother, a seventh year in her second, encouraging her to try out. He’d never been interested being so caught up in Magical Creatures, but he had always said they needed one player in the family. She always secretly thanked him for helping her build her life around the sport.  
  
Roxanne laughed. “Kind of. My brother was an arse, but the Gryffindor Keeper position was full until he and my cousin Albus graduated, and that’s the only one I ever liked playing.”  
  
Hollie smiled. “I’m so glad my brother isn’t like that.”  
  
“You’re lucky. Fred is a terrible person and I’m going to hide you from him as long as we do this, okay?” Roxanne promised, making Hollie laugh again. This time, when she reached her hand across the table and wiggled her fingers, Hollie took her hand without panic. They let their hands thread together on the table as a subtle public display.  
  
Hollie thought for a moment on how to phrase her question before she asked it. “Not that I have any prior commitments,” she eventually said, “but how long do you expect… _this_ … to last?”  
  
She let Roxanne contemplate her answer while they ordered. They both got the house special three-course, figuring that’d be easier than having the waiter constantly coming over. Hollie looked down to her lap to hide her smile when Roxanne insisted on absolutely no onions on any of her food. As if Hollie needed another little adorable bit of information about the girl.  
  
“I’m not sure.” Hollie looked back up to find that the waiter had left. “I met up with Livvy today after I talked to you. She’s the only one who knows, Nora was passed out last night.”  
  
“I told Alec and Charlotte. They won’t say anything,” Hollie added in.  
  
Roxanne nodded in understanding. “Liv seems to think once the press gets word on Logan, and gets their stories in about us, things should die down pretty quickly after.”  
  
A flash of light outside the window startled both of the girls, as well as many of the other restaurant patrons.  
  
“Speaking of—” Roxanne said sadly, looking out the window towards the other camera flashes. “It’s probably for us. No going back now, sweetheart.” Hollie looked down to where Roxanne squeezed her hand. She gave the girl a small nod, sealing her fate.  
  
Hollie stared at the dark outside the window. “How do you get used to it?”  
  
Roxanne chuckled. “You don’t.”  
  
Their first course came out soon after. There were a few more scattered camera flashes, but nothing too distracting. After they got their food Hollie found herself relaxing more at the easy conversation. Roxanne talked a lot about her family and Hollie about hers, and they both went on about speculations for the upcoming Quidditch season.  
  
She found herself being introduced to a whole new side of Roxanne that she’d never known of. She listened and laughed to the horror stories of her older brother, about growing up with her dad running a joke shop and her mother coaching Quidditch. Hollie even told a few stories about her dads and older brother, and they both reminisced about their Quidditch days at Hogwarts.  
  
Hollie couldn’t help the way she was falling even deeper in her feelings for the girl in front of her. She shoved Alec’s warnings to the back of her head as Roxanne laughed along with the story of her brother’s first King’s Cross experience, focusing instead on the way Roxanne kept their hands together even as they ate.  
  
Even if it was just for show, Hollie couldn’t help but hold on right back.  
  
Roxanne insisted on paying at the end of the meal, quietly stating it was the least she could do for the huge, unreturnable favor Hollie was doing for her.  
  
“Let’s stop in the loo, and then we’ll go, alright?” Roxanne suggested after counting out Galleons onto the table. They both deposited their napkins on the table and headed for the front of the restaurant.  
  
Hollie couldn’t tell if this was another stunt from Roxanne or the girl legitimately needed to use the loo, so she followed quietly behind. She watched as the door shut behind her, Roxanne shamelessly peeked under each stall to make sure the room was empty, before turning back to Hollie.  
  
“The paparazzi are going to swarm us when we get outside,” Roxanne said in a suddenly serious manner. Hollie was slightly taken aback at the way her tone had changed so quickly from how she had been talking in the dining room. She watched as Roxanne fixed her makeup in the mirror as she explained; “The restaurant has Charms to prevent them from coming inside, but they will be waiting. I’ll do most of the talking, so you don’t have to worry. Are you ready?”  
  
Hollie stared at the girl in front of her. Roxanne, ever patient, waited for Hollie to gather her thoughts and nod, before linking her arm around Hollie’s and dragging her out of the bathroom. Roxanne and Hollie made eye contact one last time before pushing out the doors of the restaurant and into the horde.  
  
“Miss Weasley! Over here!”  
  
“Roxanne! Is she the girl from the articles?”  
  
“Captain Weasley! A quick quote?”  
  
“Miss Finnigan, what’s it like dating your Captain?”  
  
Through all of the flashes of light Hollie managed to pick out the person that had talked to her. She stared, trying to figure out how on earth they had already figured out who she was. Somewhere in the back of her head she knew her dumbfounded face would be plastered everywhere within the hour.  
  
“Aw, come on guys.” Hollie turned to where Roxanne was speaking next to her. The group all shouted out other questions about the game, about Avery, and anything else. “Give her a break; you’ll scare her away from me.” Hollie jumped as she felt Roxanne wrap her arm around her, somehow anchoring her through the storm of lights.  
  
The crowd laughed at Roxanne’s joke. “Miss Weasley! Is this the girl from the Prophet article; the one Logan Avery mentioned?”  
  
Hollie felt Roxanne chuckle. If she turned she suspected the girl would be giving a smirk a Slytherin could envy. “No comment.”  
  
“Aw come on, give us something!” another one shouted.  
  
Roxanne cleared her throat. “I can only hope that Avery will make a quick and painless recovery at St. Mungo’s, and that he will be nothing but supportive of mine and Hollie’s _relationship_ when he makes it out.”  
  
There was another buzz of questions, but none stood out more than the _Sonorus_ charm amplified, “Give us a kiss!”  
  
Within seconds the crowd of paparazzi was chanting “Kiss, kiss!”  
  
Hollie felt Roxanne’s head turn towards her, and her hand drag along her shoulder as she turned towards Hollie. Roxanne’s eyes were bright, happy, as she gave Hollie a small shrug to say, _if it’s okay with you_.  
  
Hollie stared into the girl’s eyes, struck all at once with what the situation was going to mean. Thoughts flashed of Hollie trying harder and harder to hide her true feelings, of the press throwing her whole life on display, and of the eventual breakup and trying to go back to normal.  
  
Already in too deep, Hollie didn’t pull back when Roxanne moved forward. The thudding in her ears masked the sounds of the cheers, and the way Roxanne’s eyes were filled with hope and happiness shielded her away from the camera flashes, leaving just the girl in front of her.  
  
Hollie shut her eyes right before the moment happened. With one small touch of lips the moment was over, and a small huff of breath told Hollie that Roxanne was giggling.  
  
Hollie had tried to see past the sudden behavior change in the bathroom, and wasn’t oblivious enough to think that this was nothing more than a plan for the other girl. But the chaste feeling of Roxanne’s lips on hers only managed to serve as a steady reminder that Roxanne would never feel the same way as Hollie did about her. Even through the cheers and camera flashes, Hollie felt like falling apart.


	5. Black Bats

_The Daily Prophet_ sat on the kitchen table in Hollie Finnigan’s flat, opened to the sports section. In it, there were recaps from the Wasps/United game, another article about the new Holyhead Seeker, and a fluff piece about _How to Make Loads of Galleons from your Fantasy Team Today!_ But right in the center of the sports page there was a large picture of Hollie Finnigan and Roxanne Weasley sharing a kiss. Under it was a lengthy article about romantic speculations, as well as statistics from the few games Hollie had played in, and a ‘tell all’ about anything and everything they knew about Hollie.  
  
However, said girl was not sitting at the table and reading the article.  
  
“You can do this. You can face the team and be a lesbian with Roxanne. You can pretend you’ve been dating her in secret for ages, and the press finally found you. Oh my god, I’m talking to myself. I’m going insane.”  
  
Hollie stared at her reflection in the tiny bathroom mirror. She had bags under her eyes from tossing and turning the previous night. After the staged kiss Roxanne had dragged her away from the press with some tossed out line about an early practice. She had pulled her between two buildings, hugged her and thanked her again for the help, and disapparated without another word. Hollie had stared at the space Roxanne had just vacated until she heard the horde coming around the corner, and disapparated herself.  
  
They had practice that day in preparation for a game against the Ballycastle Bats, which they would be playing that weekend. It was mostly a practice to give Alec a better warm up before the match, as he would be starting Seeker until Avery recovered.  
  
Hollie had planned on visiting her parents after the match since it was in Ireland anyway, but as she stared down to the letter sitting in the sink, she reconsidered. It had arrived shortly after her initial read of the article, only adding to her panic. She thought about never stepping foot in her parents’ house, or the country of Ireland, again.  
  
  
 _Hollie,_  
  
 _Your father and I saw the paper this morning. Are you still stopping by after the match this weekend? We’d love to officially meet Roxanne if you are. We won’t be able to make the game, though, so sorry about that. So good luck!_  
  
 _Your father is growing a midlife crisis beard. Make sure to tell him it looks okay when you visit so you don’t hurt his feelings. Your brother sends his love, though I’m sure he’ll write whenever The Prophet makes it to him. This seems like big news, Hollie, but as long as you’re happy we are too._  
  
 _Papa_  
  
  
Hollie crumpled up the letter and tossed it in the trash bin next to her sink. She made a mental note to go to Diagon Alley and mail out a response after practice, though she didn’t know how to answer it, much less how to ask Roxanne to fake-meet her parents.  
  
The second she got the letter from Ireland, guilt bubbled up inside of her. She felt terrible that her parents had to find out about what was going on in her life from the newspaper because she had forgotten to give them a heads up that she was ‘seeing’ someone.  
  
In her panic about _The Daily Prophet_ article and her parent’s letter, Hollie got to the Tutshill stadium late.  
  
The girls’ locker room was deserted when Hollie stepped out of the Floo, so she quickly pulled her hair back and rushed out onto the field. Thankfully she hadn’t missed the morning meeting, as it seemed that a few of her teammates were still walking towards the center of the field.  
  
“Nice of you to join us, Finnigan,” Coach called out as Hollie jogged over. “Care to tell me why you’re suddenly news in the bloody _Prophet_ too?” His voice rose with each syllable, making his face redder and angrier.  
  
Hollie cleared her throat and looked to Roxanne. The girl was giving her a small smile, and Hollie was sure she’d already gotten in a fight with the coach before she had arrived. “Well… we were—” she paused to gather her thoughts. “They found us.”  
  
Coach stared, his eye twitching in fury.  
  
“Coach,” Roxanne finally decided to intervene. “Maybe Hollie and I can fill you in after practice?”  
  
Hollie looked around to where her teammates were pointedly not looking at her and Roxanne. Nora and Nicholas were in an intense, obvious conversation, and Salvador was talking to Charlotte. Terrence, ever indifferent, was fidgeting with his gloves and looking towards the ground. The only one giving her any eye contact was Alec, with a thumbs up and a grin that made Hollie want to give him a different hand gesture.  
  
She looked back to where her coach was still breathing heavily. Seeming to suddenly snap out of his anger, he turned and shouted, “Williams! Get on your bloody broom! I want ten Snitches before you’re allowed a water break!”  
  
*  
  
Thankfully for Hollie’s sanity, their coach was focused on Alec for the majority of practice and she didn’t have to sit and explain to him how and why she was suddenly in a relationship with her captain. She’d given Alec a look of pity when he had to stay after and talk to their coach about what would happen in Ballycastle that weekend. At this point no news was good news for Logan’s recovery, but everyone would have eyes on the person that took his place.  
  
She walked with Charlotte back to the girl’s locker room, thankful that she talked about her kids instead of bringing anything up about the date or the state of the bags under Hollie’s eyes.  
  
“I just can’t believe it!” Nora caught up to them, throwing her arm around Hollie’s shoulder. She could smell the faint waft of vodka still clinging to the girl’s clothing. “First I have to find out about Roxanne’s switch hitting from the bloody paper, and now this.”  
  
“I don’t think that phrase applies to girls…” Hollie mumbled. She looked up and smiled when she heard Roxanne snort. Roxanne came over and tugged Nora’s arm off of her. Hollie cursed the way her heart still picked up when the girl came closer, even after the way their kiss had felt the previous night.  
  
Hollie was sure Roxanne could feel the shiver she gave off when the girl replaced Nora’s arm with her own.  
  
“Maybe if you weren’t so bloody intoxicated all the time you’d remember our conversations,” Roxanne quipped back, voice full of easy laughter. Hollie was trying to decide whether or not to wrap her arm around Roxanne’s waist when she felt the girl plant a quick kiss onto her cheek.  
  
“Aw, she’s blushing,” Livvy cooed when she got out of the showers. She wrapped the towel more securely around herself as she said. “So bloody cute, you two.” Her sarcasm, for the fact that she was dripping water onto the floor, was extraordinary.  
  
Roxanne rolled her eyes and turned to Hollie. “She’s just a bitter old hag,” she mock-whispered loudly enough so everyone could hear.  
  
Hollie laughed at the way Roxanne and Livvy easily fake-bickered back and forth, Livvy throwing in quips about how ‘tired’ they both looked, and Roxanne throwing right back that she could have the same if she bucked up and asked. Livvy laughed and rolled her eyes easily, but Hollie didn’t miss the way a tiny glance was thrown to Nora. She couldn’t help but remember what Roxanne had said the previous night, and wondered if it was Nora or Nicholas that was the object of the Beater’s affection.  
  
Eventually Charlotte had to leave to relieve her babysitter, so after a quick goodbye and another sarcastic ‘congratulations’, she left. Shortly after, Nora corralled Livvy out of the locker room and towards the Floo, making a comment about a champagne brunch ‘without the brunch’ to get her to leave the new couple alone.  
  
Leaving just Roxanne and Hollie. It was only seconds after Nora and Livvy were gone that Roxanne jerked her arm off of Hollie.  
  
“Sorry! I get so disgusting at practice. That was probably miserable for you,” Roxanne apologized as she straightened out her practice jersey.  
  
Hollie managed to not tell her exactly how she felt, and mumbled off about it being okay, and that she was gross too.  
  
Roxanne smiled. “What are your plans for the rest of the day?”  
  
“Not sure,” Hollie shrugged. “I was going to see if Alec wanted to grab lunch, but he’s probably still getting yelled at and that’ll take a while. I’ve got to stop at the Post Office and write back to my parents with an apology. They found out I apparently have a girlfriend I didn’t tell them about.” Hollie chuckled.  
  
Roxanne winced, but laughed along with Hollie. “I will be avoiding a certain joke shop for a while. Want to grunge it and head to Diagon Alley now? I was eventually planning on making my way there. We can talk a little bit more about,” she gestured between the two of them, “this.”  
  
Hollie nodded and looked down to her old battered Tornados jersey. It was one of the first ones she’d ever gotten and had a large hole in the side, her bright tank top peeking through the baggier fabric. “You’re sure you want to grunge it?” Hollie asked, laughing as she covered it up with her palm.  
  
The girl chuckled. “It’ll be nice for any lurking paparazzi to see us out and about doing normal things,” she reasoned with a shrug. “They love those fluff pieces; might as well give them something so they don’t try to poke holes.”  
  
Hollie tried not to let her smile falter as Roxanne turned to fix her hair before they left. Somewhere in the back of her mind she was drilling at herself for thinking that Roxanne had actually wanted to spend time with her, instead of just wanting to pose for the paparazzi. She knew it wasn’t Roxanne’s fault; for all the girl knew they were teammates and hardly friends posing as lovers. She didn’t know the sinking feeling in Hollie’s chest as they Floo’d to The Leaky Cauldron one after another.  
  
The girls both waved to their old Herbology Professor behind the bar as they crossed through The Leaky Cauldron, before exiting through the back door and coming to the brick wall. Hollie let Roxanne pull out her wand and tap the familiar pattern of bricks, and watched as they magically separated like they’d done all her life.  
  
“My brother would never let me when we were growing up,” Roxanne commented as they started their way down the busy street. It was early into the summer season, so while it wasn’t into the back to school season, the street was still filled with witches and wizards going about casual shopping. “He’d always push me back and run forward and tap them before my mum could control him. The two years that he had a wand and I didn’t were miserable. He’d mock me.”  
  
Hollie chuckled to hopefully camouflage how she wanted to smile fondly at Roxanne’s story. “Your brother still sounds terrible.”  
  
“He’s the absolute _worst_. He’s lucky he married his Hogwarts girlfriend or I don’t know how he’d ever meet someone now.” Roxanne continued forward, grabbing Hollie’s hand as she led the way down the alley. “His wife is just like him, and they just had a daughter who’s way too perfect to be theirs.”  
  
“I am grateful I didn’t marry my Hogwarts girlfriend,” Hollie commented, surprised in herself for putting up the information so freely. “She ended up being a bit jealous when I made it in Pro-Quidditch and she didn’t. We were both on the team at school and I could always tell she was jealous that I got made captain.”  
  
“That’s terrible,” Roxanne said, “At the very least she should be happy for you.”  
  
Hollie shrugged. “One of the many, many reasons things didn’t work out.”  
  
Roxanne nodded. “My biggest Hogwarts relationship ended because of Quidditch, too. We were also on the same team, and there were scouts at the school who offered me a spot after our game. He was upset and jealous and left me for another Chaser.”  
  
“Ouch,” Hollie grimaced. She watched the way Roxanne waved her hand and laughed it off, claiming it wasn’t that big of a deal.  
  
Hollie thought about how to phrase her next question for a while before she actually asked it. “Any other romantic interests after him?”  
  
Roxanne immediately picked up on her tone. “No girls, if that’s what you’re asking,” she replied with a grin. Thankfully she was too nice to comment at the way Hollie blushed that she’d been figured out. “The girl from the Prophet article was the first.”  
  
Shocked, Hollie turned to her. “It was true?”  
  
With a small nod, Roxanne explained. “I suppose if anyone, you should know. Avery and I were casual for a while. We kind of hated each other’s personalities, but the… everything else was good.” Roxanne winced and Hollie pretended her heart didn’t feel like it’d just been stabbed. “We were at one of those random Muggle dives Nora always drags everyone to. It was Avery’s idea in the first place. I don’t even remember the girl’s name; just that she was a Muggle. I was really sloshed. I was stunned that Avery had even remembered it. I just hope he gets the help he needs.”  
  
Hollie couldn’t bring herself to ask Roxanne anything more specific, so she tried to deflect positively. “At least the girl won’t talk to _The Prophet_ writers and spoil anything.”  
  
Roxanne looked up and gave her a small smile. “I don’t think I’ll ever be able to stop thanking you for putting yourself out there like this, Hollie,” she said with a small squeeze of her hand. “Your parents aren’t going to be mad that I’m a girl, are they?”  
  
Hollie couldn’t have prevented the snort even if she tried. “I don’t think my _dads_ will mind that you’re a girl, Roxanne. They say they’ve always known, but I came out to them when I was fifteen and first started dating Lacy.”  
  
“Lacy,” Roxanne mulled the name over. “She sounds like a bit of a jealous one.”  
  
Both of the girls were laughing by the time they made it to the Post Office. Hollie had almost forgotten that Roxanne was here with her just to be seen as they joked around about their teenage pasts and reminisced together about Hogwarts.  
  
With Roxanne’s help, Hollie managed to write back to her dads with little problem. Hollie hadn’t even had to worry about asking her to come along after that weekend’s game; Roxanne offered as she hovered over and watched Hollie writing. Hollie looked up and gave her a small smile, before adding into the letter that Roxanne would come with after the game.  
  
With Roxanne watching over her, excited, she couldn’t bring herself to tell her parents that everything was a lie and she wasn’t actually dating the girl. She knew they would never leak anything to the news, but just to be safe she omitted the information because it wasn’t her own personal owl.  
  
Hollie supposed that a weight should have lifted off of her shoulders that Roxanne had taken meeting her parents so well. She should have been grateful that she didn’t have to ask. However, all she felt was the burdens on her shoulders being replaced by new ones  
  
Hollie would be bringing her fake girlfriend to meet her parents in four days.  
  
She jumped when she suddenly felt Roxanne put her hands on her waist behind her, and started steering her down the street.  
  
“You were spacing out and heading towards a certain joke shop we’re avoiding, sweetheart.”  
  
Hollie couldn’t figure out why Roxanne decided it would be okay to rest her chin on her shoulder and wrap her arms around her waist, until the shutter of a camera snapped her out of her revere. Hollie turned towards the noise and saw the man hiding behind the sign for Florean Fortescuse’s Ice Cream Parlor. Hollie managed to laugh as Roxanne told her she’d cover up the giant hole in the side of her shirt with her arm, even though the feeling of Roxanne’s fingertips on her stomach were stirring up the butterflies into overdrive.  
  
“You just want to hide behind me and use me as a shield,” Hollie quipped back. “Some Gryffindor you are.”  
  
Roxanne’s laughter in her ears did nothing to help the butterflies.  
  
*  
  
The game against the Ballycastle Bats came up on the team quickly, and before they knew it they were all getting ready to take a Portkey to Ireland. They all tried to arrive together at away games to show a sense of team comradery.  
  
As expected, the press was up in arms about Avery not playing. When the team landed in Ballycastle and let go of the Portkey, they were immediately swarmed by paparazzi.  
  
“Weasley, Any news on Logan Avery’s recovery?”  
  
“Williams, are you ready to face off against Quigley’s bat?”  
  
“Coach Figby, will Avery be okay to play when the regular season starts?”  
  
Their coach was hollering ‘no comment’ over and over as he ushered them all forward. Hollie squeezed the strap of her travel bag and stuck close to the rest of her team. Coach had already instructed them that, under no circumstances, should they feed the masses with any information about Logan or anything else. Anything they said would be splattered in the paper and other teams would have a chance to benefit from it. She kept her head down towards the ground and walked briskly with the rest of the team towards the visiting locker rooms.  
  
When they finally made it into the stadium Hollie felt like her ears were still buzzing from the loud paparazzi. It didn’t help when their coach immediately put the whistle in his mouth and blew until everyone in the room was quiet.  
  
Hollie sat next to Alec and patted his knee. He was progressively growing paler and more jittery, and the questions from the press had not helped him get over his nerves. Over the practices the past few days, the entire team worked together to help Alec practice flying patterns and speed drills, all to boost their chances of beating the Bats.  
  
Their coach rambled on about defense and offense, but the team knew that the only tangible threat was going to be Finbar Quigley. He had played for the Bats for _ages_ and even represented Ireland in all of the Quidditch World Cups since the nineties. Being an Ireland native, Hollie had grown up with him as a hero of sorts. Roxanne knew him since she played on Britain’s team, so she added in whatever information she could spare about some of his brutal tactics. Hollie hung onto the words Roxanne was saying; after what happened with Avery, she understood how quickly the match could change and she could get thrown in.  
  
A blur of lights and cheers passed and after a quick warm up with the team, Hollie found herself in the visiting team’s dugout. She only had Charlotte and Elijah with her this time, and waited impatiently with her fingers crossed for Alec.  
  
The stands exploded when the Bats flew out onto the field with the Tornados. Chants of Quigley’s name filled the stands as the teams lined up in starting positions. With a rehash of rules and a blow of a whistle, the game started. Terrence used his speed to – once again – grab the Quaffle before the opposing center Chaser, racking up fantasy points for himself.  
  
Hollie didn’t talk to her fellow reserves much as she watched the game; she alternated cheering for her team and Alec, and studying the way Salvador and Livvy worked together. It was a challenge for the two Tornados’ Beaters to keep up; she could already see the way Sal was sweating through his uniform as he chased past the other players to defend the team.  
  
The scoring stayed fairly equal as the game went on. Typically for pre-season they didn’t start the games until the afternoon, so sometimes games could go on all through the night. Hollie was in the middle of letting out a large yawn at the lack of movement forward when a gasp filled the stands at the crack of wood and bone.  
  
Roxanne instantly called for a time out and shot over to Salvador, who was cradling his arm to his stomach. With the help of Terrence and Nicholas, they managed to fly him over to the dugout and call over a Sports Healer at the same time.  
  
Salvador was swearing in Spanish as they helped him off his broom and onto the bench. Hollie caught a glimpse of his hand and cringed; the Bludger that Quigley had sent towards him had been going so fast that it hit his hand instead of his bat, causing the bones in his fingers to break.  
  
“Where’s the bloody Healer?” Coach hollered as he pushed the rest of the team out of the way to get to Salvador. “Finnigan, warm up!”  
  
Hollie’s stomach dropped.  
  
Her first thought was to look for Alec or Roxanne for confirmation, but she quickly contained herself and started to grab for her padding. She couldn’t figure out how to work her gloves as her heart started to race and her hands shook.  
  
“Ay capitán burro,” Salvador called out through his pain, “estoy bien. Lo siento, hermana!”  
  
“Bloody—” Coach’s face was starting to redden in anger. “Salvador, no one can freaking understand you when you talk like that!”  
  
“He said he’s fine, Coach,” Terrence said from behind Roxanne. “With a few other words.” The team – Salvador included – all chuckled.  
  
“Coach, his hand is broken,” Roxanne immediately argued. “Put Finnigan in!”  
  
“Weasley!” Coach barked back, “The Healers are fixing it and he wants to play. I’m not having this argument with you again.” Hollie stood in between them, frozen with one glove on, and watched as Roxanne yelled at the coach for not putting the game first.  
  
The buzzer sounded for the team to get back into play, so Hollie left up to Salvador. After all, he was a regular player and she wasn’t.  
  
“Maybe next time, hermana,” Salvador said as he laid a quick-fixed, supportive hand on her shoulder. “My novia is out there today.” He pointed out to the crowd.  
  
Hollie couldn’t manage words with the sudden lump that formed in her throat. She nodded to him and gave him the best faked smile that she could, before heading back over to sit on the bench. When Hollie looked up to stop the wetness in her eyes from spilling out, she caught a look from Roxanne. She couldn’t help but smile back at Roxanne’s apologetic look; even though she was only sympathizing with her as a friend and teammate, it still helped Hollie keep her sadness from showing.  
  
It was an hour of injury-free game time later when Alec and the Bats’ Seeker went into a high speed chase down the field. Hollie let her sadness be forgotten as she shrieked in happiness while Alec’s fingers wrapped around the Snitch.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fun fact: Quigley was the Beater who broke Viktor Krum’s nose at the World Cup in GoF.


	6. Home Time

“Are you sure you want to do this? I won’t be mad if you’d rather go out and celebrate.”  
  
“Hollie, you’re doing me a huge favor. It’s the least I can do.”  
  
“We really don’t have to.”  
  
“I’d like to meet them.”  
  
“It’s totally okay if we don’t.”  
  
“Open the door, Hollie.”  
  
“Don’t laugh at my dad’s beard.”  
  
“I won’t.”  
  
Hollie stared at Roxanne for another few moments. The girl was laughing at her, and Hollie was torn. She loved the way Roxanne’s eyes lit up because of her – even at her expense – but it was her _parents_. Her parents who grew out embarrassing midlife crisis beards and wanted to meet her _girlfriend_.  
  
Hollie could still remember when her older brother brought over his girlfriend, who would eventually become his wife. Her Nana just showed up with every intention to _judge_ the poor girl, until she actually met her. To this day, Hollie swore her Nana loved Jess more than she loved Sean, her own grandson.  
  
She had her fingers crossed that Nana wouldn’t _show_ up to meet her girlfriend that night.  
  
Fake girlfriend, Hollie’s mind corrected her. Her fake girlfriend, who was reaching for the door handle to enter her parent’s house without her.  
  
“Roxanne!” Hollie lunged for the handle of the door and slid in front of the girl.  
  
Face inches away from her, Roxanne grinned and didn’t back up. “You’re ridiculous,” she muttered, an almost fond smile peeking through.  
  
Getting slightly caught up at the way Roxanne was smiling, Hollie almost fell backwards when there suddenly wasn’t a door she was leaning up against.  
  
“Hollie, we thought we heard you apparate in!” Her dad’s voice suddenly appeared behind her. She could hear the sarcasm in his heavy Irish accent. She never noticed it much as a kid, but it seemed like he was picking it up worse with age.  
  
Hollie cringed. What a cliché for her father to open up the door and see his daughter and her significant other nice and close together. She shut her eyes and muttered, “Hi, Dad.”  
  
She heard her papa laughing from the kitchen. Her dad said, “Want to turn around and introduce me to your friend?”  
  
Just as she was planning on saying _not really_ , Roxanne grabbed her by the shoulders and spun her around to face her dad.  
  
Hollie smiled at her dad. “This is Roxanne. From the Prophet.” It hadn’t been that long since she saw her parents, but seeing her dad with the beard seemed to age him quite a bit. If her papa hadn’t warned her not to laugh, Hollie would have instantly insulted the sandy hair mixed in with the _large_ amount of grey along his freckled chin.  
  
“Hello, Roxanne from the Prophet.”  
  
Hollie sighed and rolled her eyes at her father.  
  
Roxanne smiled through the formal introductions, shaking her dad’s hand and re-introducing herself to her papa when he entered the room. Where her dad had taken becoming an old Irish man by growing out a beard, her papa had dealt with things better; his darker skin was free of embarrassing facial hair. Thankfully her parents hadn’t decided to go all out and invite relatives, so it was just the four of them as they eventually settled onto the couch in the living room.  
  
“Congratulations on the win,” her dad said as her papa casted a spell to light the fireplace. “We caught the end on the wireless. How is Salvador’s hand?”  
  
“He’ll be fine,” Hollie replied. “It was a pretty minor break; the Healer put it right pretty quickly.”  
  
Papa nodded. “Think you’ll get a little bit more game time this season?”  
  
Hollie could feel herself blushing. Having Roxanne hear her parents’ concerns about their own ‘special snowflake’ wasn’t what Hollie had wanted to put her through for this visit. She fidgeted with the string hanging off of her Quidditch jumper and tried not to look too noticeably upset. She’d been so close to getting some game time that day.  
  
She failed to keep from jumping when Roxanne’s knuckles brushed up against hers. “Coach should have put her in right when Sal got taken out. It was a rubbish call. He could have been injured worse with the recent heal.”  
  
Hollie looked up when Roxanne pulled their hands together. She gave the girl a small smile, silently thanking her for playing the supportive girlfriend role so well.  
  
“Right. Well, we’ll give you two a few minutes to wind down from the game. Dinner should be ready soon,” her papa patted her dad’s knee, and the two headed towards the kitchen.  
  
“So,” Roxanne turned to Hollie. Hollie hoped that the girl would pick _any_ topic other than Quidditch. Though she was thrilled that their team had won and so happy for Alec (who she was absolutely sure was smashed by now), she didn’t want to hear about _almost_ making it in anymore. “I can see where your accent comes from now.”  
  
Hollie’s eyes snapped to hers. “I do not have an accent.” The day she started talking like her dad would be the day she’d forever give up on relationships – fake or not – and start raising an army of cats.  
  
Roxanne was laughing. “It’s not that noticeable. Just when you’re freaking out about something.” Hollie’s frown only made Roxanne laugh even more.  
  
“You do have to tell me though,” she continued. “How’d you manage to like girls when you grew up with two dads?” When Hollie looked back up, Roxanne was smirking at her.  
  
Hollie laughed. “I don’t know; it’s almost like your parents don’t have any genetic influence over who you end up fancying.”  
  
“Weren’t you adopted?” Roxanne asked.  
  
“Surrogate mother,” Hollie explained.  
  
“At least I don’t have to ask which dad,” Roxanne laughed as she pushed her darker arm against Hollie’s lighter, slightly freckled one. On the smaller sofa, she was pressed entirely against Roxanne. Their knees bumped together as Roxanne’s teasing laughter filled the room.  
  
They were summoned to dinner a few moments later. Hollie was busy having a crisis in her own head about all of the closeness, but her brain quickly dropped it when they walked into the kitchen and saw the filled table. Even though her papa wasn’t native to Ireland like her dad, he still cooked a pile of traditional-style food that would rival Nana’s Christmas feasts.  
  
“Papa, you realize it’s just the four of us, right?” Hollie looked to him, knowing he’d done most of the cooking. They couldn’t trust their dad around a pot, magical or not.  
  
Papa smiled. “Ah, well, you never come home. And Nana is coming to visit tomorrow anyway so she’ll want to snag as many of our Tupperware containers as she can.” Hollie laughed when she saw her papa give a pointed look to her dad.  
  
“Give her my love and apologies,” Hollie said. “We have an early practice tomorrow.” She turned to Roxanne, who was nodding along.  
  
“Though I don’t know how many of our teammates will actually be conscious on their brooms tomorrow. We weren’t predicted to win,” Roxanne added in. “I can only imagine what Liv and Nora are getting themselves into without me ‘mother henning’ over them, as they’d say.”  
  
Hollie gave the girl a smile, grateful all over again that she’d abandoned the team to be here.  
  
They ate for a while, enjoying her papa’s cooking. Everything was fantastic; Hollie could tell that her dad hadn’t been allowed to help. It was moments like this - eating home cooked meal and her dads smiling at each other - that Hollie missed being a kid.  
  
“How did the two of you meet?” Roxanne asked over the food.  
  
Her dads grinned to each other, and Hollie hid a small smile. She had heard this story a million times from them and from her grandma’s telling at Christmas.  
  
“We met as first years,” her dad said, taking the reins. “Friends all the way through, until seventh year with the war.” Hollie watched as her papa draped his arm over her the back of her dad’s chair and pull him closer. “Dean didn’t have proof of his lineage, so we were separated for a long time.”  
  
“And it was all really cute, Papa just showing up in the Room of Requirement and telling you he loved you before running off to fight. I don’t think Roxanne needs to suffer through all the soppy romantic details,” Hollie interrupted her dad, making him laugh.  
  
Roxanne chuckled at Hollie. “I always love hearing the stories. My dad doesn’t ever talk about the war.” Her face grew a little sad at the empty memories her family must have been filled with.  
  
“We knew your uncle during school,” Dean said. “Will never forget his fireworks escape of that old hag Umbridge.”  
  
Roxanne smiled. “I have heard that one. My mum always threatened my brother that he’d be disowned whenever he tried to ‘follow in Dad’s footsteps.’”  
  
Hollie told herself when she reached under the table to grab Roxanne’s hand that she was just pretending to be the supportive girlfriend right back, or give her a friendly shoulder to lean on. Somewhere in her mind a little voice was yelling at her for using the girl’s grief to be closer to her. But when Roxanne took her hand and squeezed back, Hollie stopped listening to it.  
  
They picked at the ends of their meals for a while, talking about the pre-season so far, and what they thought was going to happen once the rest of the season started. Hollie rolled her eyes when her dad waxed poetic about Kenmare, even though they were rivals of his own daughter’s team. Her parents filled her in on everything that her brother was studying in the Arctic.  
  
Hollie snuck glances over to Roxanne whenever she could. If anything, she told herself, it would just look to her parents that she was very infatuated with her girlfriend.  
  
If only it were that easy.  
  
Roxanne was listening and laughing along with her dad’s Quidditch ranting, and even adding in her own opinions and statistics about why the Britain team had a chance to be in the ranks that Ireland had been holding through the years.  
  
She watched as her dads laughed along with her fake girlfriend, and wondered how bummed out they were going to be when Hollie had to break the news that she and Roxanne had ‘broken up’ in time.  
  
Getting lost in her own head, Hollie jumped a little when Roxanne elbowed her.  
  
“Where’d you just wander off to?” Roxanne muttered softly, leaning in and resting her chin on Hollie’s shoulder. Hollie shut her eyes and tried to breathe normally at the feeling of the soft breath on her ear and neck.  
  
“Just thinking about how my own father is going to disown me when we destroy Kenmare in the regular season,” Hollie replied, squeezing Roxanne’s hand and laughing at her father’s affronted face. Through her own slightly forced laughter, Hollie didn’t feel Roxanne move closer until there was a pair of lips happily pressing into her cheek.  
  
Roxanne was smiling when she backed up and Hollie had turned to her. It scared her how natural it felt to just move forward and press another kiss onto the girl’s lips. It scared her how she heard a tiny hitch in Roxanne’s breath as it happened, and that Roxanne kept smiling even after it happened.  
  
“We should head out.” Hollie turned her head away from Roxanne even as she directed the suggestion to her. She knew she was blushing, which she could write off as her parents sitting right there, even though she felt transparent all over again.  
  
Still close, she felt Roxanne chuckle next to her. Hollie didn’t dare turn and look at whatever surprised expression the girl must have had on from just being kissed. “I suppose you’re right,” she replied and sat back in the chair. “I’ll need to use magic to corral them home if I leave Livvy in Nora’s care any longer.”  
  
“I’ll probably be making another trip into the men’s room if Alec has celebrated as hard as he was talking about in the locker room,” Hollie added in.  
  
“Just be safe, girls,” Papa said, standing up to start the round of goodbyes.  
  
“Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do,” her dad added in after.  
  
Hollie turned to her father. “Dad, didn’t Papa tell us that you tried to make magic rum in your _first_ year?”  
  
Her dad frowned. “You can’t bring that up every time we try to parent you, Hollie; that was different!”  
  
“You were eleven,” Hollie snarked back. She laughed when her dad made a comment about his kids growing up too fast, before coming over and giving her a hug goodbye.  
  
Hollie knew she should have prepared herself for the way it would feel to watch Roxanne hug her dads goodbye and hear all of the lines about how great it was to meet her. As she watched them laugh along to Roxanne agreeing to ‘bring their daughter around more’, she couldn’t help but feel terrible for subjecting them to meeting Roxanne, just to take it all away.  
  
It wasn’t like she had never brought girls home to meet them before. There’d been a handful of hopefuls over the years. Some her parents had liked, and some that they hadn’t. But as she watched her dads’ eyes light up when Roxanne agreed to another dinner in the very near future, she knew they’d be upset when she and Roxanne broke up.  
  
Roxanne had the location of where the team celebration was to be at, so after the goodbyes were finished, they headed out to the yard hand in hand to apparate there.  
  
“They’re nice,” Roxanne said as they landed outside the club. The town of Ballycastle was similar to Tutshill, with a whole street of magical clubs and nightlife. No one batted an eye when the two girls suddenly appeared in the middle of the street.  
  
“Yeah,” Hollie agreed. “I’m just glad my nana didn’t show up. She can get a little judgmental when she’s had too much to drink.” She let her tone shift a little more serious. “Thank you, though, for coming with me and playing the girlfriend part so well.”  
  
Roxanne looked up and blinked for a second, before smiling. “Like I said, Hollie, it was really the least I could do.” She felt Roxanne squeeze her hand. “Let’s go in.”  
  
Hollie wasn’t sure if it was the fact that they were semi-famous Quidditch players or just because they were two girls that they got let in the base-pounding, sweaty club right away, but she wasn’t going to complain. Even being summertime with the later time of the night it was still a bit chilly in the Northern Ireland town.  
  
“The dance floor or the loo?” Roxanne had to yell her question even though they were pressed together so as to not get separated.  
  
“Let’s check by the bar and grab a drink!” Hollie shouted back. She and failed to hide her smile when Roxanne gave her a look. “Just one,” Hollie mouthed, already tired of shouting.  
  
“We have practice tomorrow morning,” Roxanne managed to get her sentence out in a pause in the music.  
  
Hollie smiled, already knowing she was just teasing the girl. “Fine. Though, Alec will probably insist on a shot before I can get him to leave.”  
  
Roxanne shook her head, still smiling, as they worked their way through the mass of sweaty people. They stopped for a few random fans – though they mostly got irritated looks because they’d beaten the Bats – and Hollie waited for Roxanne to take pictures with them. Even though it was all for show, Hollie still felt less than happy when she had to drop her arm from around Roxanne’s waist for her to meet fans.  
  
Eventually they made it through the masses and got up near the bar. Hollie was just about to suggest heading through the dance floor when she heard her name.  
  
Much to her and Roxanne’s relief, their team was gathered into one of the circular booths. Though, she wasn’t so sure about the _pile_ of shot glasses sitting on the table.  
  
“Aww, mum’s here, fun’s done,” Livvy shouted loudly as they approached. She was leaning her head on Nicholas’ shoulder. Hollie couldn’t help but laugh at the way Roxanne frowned to her. Telling herself it was just for show, Hollie pulled her closer to her and pressed a tiny kiss onto the pouting girl’s forehead.  
  
Hollie and Roxanne had to spend quite a bit of time corralling their teammates to leave the club. Alec had insisted that Hollie took one shot with him as celebration. “We have to—” he paused to hiccup “—celebrate that I CAUGHT the bloody SNITCH!” His voice got progressively louder with each word, and the rest of the team cheered with him when he got to the end. Hollie cringed and caught Roxanne’s glance. Being the only two sober ones there, they shared a small smile.  
  
Eventually though, they managed to convince them to leave with promises of a real celebration after their friendly with Holyhead in the upcoming week.  
  
Once the team managed to get out of the middle of the magical club to the doors, Roxanne took charge in making sure that they all Floo’d home safely.  
  
“I’m taking this one home with me,” Roxanne nodded to where Livvy had her arm slung around Roxanne’s shoulder. She was letting Roxanne support all of her weight as she leaned on her shoulder. It went unsaid, but Hollie knew Roxanne was taking the girl home to prevent more dramatics between her and the Higgins’ twins.  
  
“I’ve got our champ, here,” Hollie replied as she grabbed Alec’s arm and held him still. It was brave – or rash – enough of their team to go out and celebrate in the city they had just destroyed in Quidditch, but they didn’t need their Seeker getting a black eye for talking to the locals.  
  
There was a sharp inhale of breath before Livvy stood and attempted to support herself. “Gonna give your girlfriend a kiss goodn—” Hollie cringed at the way she abruptly stopped talking and put her hand over her mouth. It took a few deep breaths before Livvy could open her eyes back up.  
  
“Okay, Liv, let’s go.” Roxanne wrapped her arm more securely around the intoxicated Beater’s tiny waist, and helped her walk over to the public Floo.  
  
Before the two girls stepped into the fireplace, Roxanne turned around. “See you tomorrow?”  
  
Hollie smiled. “Yeah; Thanks again for coming with me tonight.”  
  
She tried to memorize the way Roxanne smiled back, to hold on to the tiny lift of lips and squint of eyes that lit up the girl’s face. She watched as Roxanne turned around and disappeared into the green flames.  
  
“Okay, champ, let’s get you home before someone punches you,” Hollie muttered under her breath, tugging Alec with her. She shoved him into the Floo first, before calling out her address and stepping out into her flat.  
  
“Alright, mate,” Hollie said as she dumped Alec on the couch. He settled in to the pillow with a happy grin on his face. “You can keep riding the win and wake up miserable for practice tomorrow, or take a Hangover Draft now and let me tell you all about what the _hell_ just happened in my life.”  
  
“Equally miserable,” Alec mumbled into the pillow. Hollie could see the side of his cheeks lifting to a grin, before he turned over to look up at the ceiling. “But give me the potion.”  
  
“Thanks,” Hollie snarked back, before leaving him and heading into the kitchen.  
  
Hollie sagged against the counter when she was out of eyesight from Alec, letting out a breath she hadn’t realized she’d been holding. The entire night’s events had crashed down on her when she stepped into her flat. She’d brought Roxanne to meet her parents. Her parents loved her girlfriend.  
  
Fake girlfriend.  
  
“Having a romantic crisis out there without me?” Alec called, snapping Hollie out of her thoughts. “I’d say I told you so, but…”  
  
Hollie grabbed the potion out of her cupboard and made her way back into the living room. When she saw Alec was still laughing at his own joke, she chucked the small vial at him.  
  
She watched as he downed it all in one – just like he’d been doing with shots the whole night. Familiar with the draft, she waited while Alec blinked harshly a few times, before shaking his head and sitting up in his seat.  
  
“It’s too bloody bad the league screens for things like that before games,” Alec said as he turned the empty vial between his fingers. “Miracle worker, that draft.”  
  
“Do I have a brogue?” Hollie asked, ignoring his praise for the potion.  
  
Alec looked up. “Yes?”  
  
“No I don’t. I’ve lived in England and Scotland since I was eleven,” Hollie argued.  
  
Alec frowned. “Out of everything, this is what you want to discuss? Everyone can tell you’re from Ireland, Hollie. For the love, your last name is ‘Finnigan’. I thought it was just something we didn’t talk about, like Portree.”  
  
“ _I_ don’t talk about Portree. _You_ bring up Portree every chance you get, because you’re an arse.” She let Alec laugh for a while as she replayed the night in her head.  
  
When she didn’t speak, Alec continued in a more serious tone. “So you brought your fake girlfriend to meet your real family. Went well, did it? No terrible feelings left over?”  
  
Hollie looked up. “Such an arse,” she muttered. She knew he didn’t really mean it, that he was just trying to make her laugh.  
  
“They loved her,” she eventually said. “They invited her back to visit any time. She gave my dad a run for his money about Quidditch.”  
  
She sat and ate her papa’s amazing cooking, and squeezed her hand when her parents brought up her lack of game time. She was everything Hollie wanted, and it was completely fake.  
  
She looked up and saw Alec waiting. “I kissed her at the dinner table.”  
  
His eyebrows rose. “You kissed her? Is this different than the one plastered in _The Prophet_?”  
  
Hollie didn’t answer. Ever since the kiss in front of her parents she’d been telling herself that Roxanne hadn’t minded, and that she wouldn’t be upset that Hollie had just pushed forward. They never talked about the physical aspects of faking a relationship so she didn’t know where Roxanne had drawn the limit. She hadn’t seemed mad, but Roxanne had proved to be excellent at putting on a happy face so far. Hollie debated if she should ask the girl the next time it was just the two of them, but in the end she decided to just wait and see what Roxanne said the following day at practice.  
  
She pushed away the little part of her thoughts that reminded her about the tiny hitch of breath that Roxanne had let out. If she started thinking that it was anything more than a slight surprise, she’d only do herself worse when the breakup actually happened.  
  
“It was the same.”


	7. Hot Dance

Hollie ended up not talking to Roxanne about the kiss. Roxanne hadn’t acted any different around her at practice the days after meeting her parents, so Hollie told herself to stop stressing out about it. Roxanne even went so far as to work on certain techniques with Hollie to help improve her gameplay; they’d grown close enough that their teammates had started teasing them about always partnering up for warmups. For the members of the team that didn’t know their secret, they looked like they were bonding _adorably_ as a couple.  
  
Through everything, Hollie hoped she could at least say she’d come out the other end with a better friendship with Roxanne.  
  
She had to push all thoughts about it out of her head, though, when she arrived at the front of the Tutshill stadium to see it swarmed with people. The Tornados would be hosting a friendly match with the Holyhead Harpies, and _The Daily Prophet_ had made quite the spectacle of it.  
  
In the middle of the mess of a sports section, _The Daily Prophet_ had decided to write a piece on the _Changing Times of the Wizarding World_ , publishing an article that essentially outed every non-heterosexual player on both teams.  
  
Since the _Prophet_ article had mentioned Hollie by name, she knew she had to push away her disgust with the news source and read what they'd said about her, her fellow teammates, and about Ellie Cooper from the Harpies. Ellie had been scooped about even more harshly than Roxanne in _The Daily Prophet_ , being the first ever transgendered player for the all-female team. She’d done a follow-up interview with the much more liberal _Witch Weekly_ , but she was still as much – if not more – of a subject as most of the Tornados players on any particular day.  
  
They’d had another meeting with the _Flyte and Barker_ owner when speculations and protests started coming in. Running an old, traditional company, Horace Flyte had been less than accommodating to the Tornados’ requests for extra security. He eventually – reluctantly – budged and helped donations after _Firebolt_ had been more than happy to help hire Aurors to be stationed all around. They would have them outside the entrance, in the locker rooms, and working along with the referees as safety precautions for the players. The magical village of Tutshill, while they were getting there by not generally backlashing against Roxanne and Hollie, were still very behind the times when it came to instances such as Ellie Cooper. They hoped having dark magic fighters would raise enough of a commentary as to how harmful some of the protestors could be.  
  
Hollie – as well as the rest of the team – had made plans to arrive outside of the stadium, instead of using the Floo to the locker rooms, to participate in the unofficial backlash towards the wizarding print media. Since they were going against their coach’s wishes and not just staying out of it, he had required them not to talk to the media about Avery. They’d seemingly forgotten about him in the print media for the time being, but with his release looming Hollie knew it wouldn’t be long.  
  
Hollie stared at the mass of people surrounding the Tutshill stadium. She couldn’t find any of her teammates in the mass of security lines, reporters, and rowdy fans. Hollie thought she saw a flash of Livvy, but a second later her arm was grabbed and she lost the girl; otherwise her teammates were nowhere to be found. New to the idea of getting swarmed by interviewers and protesters, Hollie got quickly sucked in to talking to a scary looking woman with even scarier eyeliner wings.  
  
“Miss Finnigan, what are your opinions about the Harpies accepting Elliot Cooper onto their team?” Hollie couldn’t make eye contact with the woman as she stared where her camera makeup was doing a terrible job filling in her age lines.  
  
“I think _Ellie_ will give Alec a fantastic run for his money. From what we’ve seen of her, it’ll be a brilliant match.” Hollie did her best to phrase her sarcastic answer about Quidditch, like the rude reporter should have been.  
  
“Any comments on the Prophet article about your _girlfriend_ being seen leaving a Ballycastle club with an overly-intoxicated Olivia Farmington’s arm slung over her shoulder?” The way the woman mocked the word girlfriend made Hollie want to punch her.  
  
Hollie rolled her eyes. “Roxanne’s cheating on me. The scoop just for you, ma’am.”  
  
The reporter scowled at her. “Thanks for the chat, Miss Finnigan. Good luck with the game today, if you manage to make it in, that is.”  
  
Hollie managed to throw her bag over her shoulder just as she pushed past the woman, hitting her with it. Instead of turning around and apologizing she stormed off and headed for the field, leaving the rude woman in her dust. She remembered the words Roxanne had told her on their first date, how you never get used to the way the paparazzi will treat you.  
  
Thankfully for her own sanity, Hollie managed to find an Auror to help escort her to the stadium without any more issues. The girl talked the entire time about how excited she was to be working the match, and how absolutely disgusted she was with the way some of the locals and reporters were acting. Hollie couldn’t help but smile at the red-head, thankful that she’d found at least one person she didn’t want to jinx.  
  
“It’s Quidditch!” The girl complained, waving her badge and pointing at Hollie to cut in front of the security line. Hollie watched in awe as she glared down a man with a very rude protest sign. The Auror stopped and stared until he threw it in the bin next to the line, suddenly too scared to put his opinion out. Even Hollie was intimidated by her, and she was on the same side.  
  
The Auror tugged Hollie along and kept talking. “These people act like it’s going to ruin their lives _and_ their children’s lives to see something a little abnormal. Well it wouldn’t even be abnormal if they weren’t making a big deal out of it in the first place!”  
  
Hollie wanted to tell the ranting girl how much she agreed, but she couldn’t get a word in. She also wanted to tell her that she’d be fine to walk the rest of the way to the Tornados locker room, but as soon as she opened her mouth, the girl talked over her. “I’m stationed in your locker room,” she explained. “Got here a bit late, but it’s lucky I found you. You looked like you were about to sock that reporter.”  
  
Hollie waited for a few seconds to make sure the girl was done talking before answering. “I just couldn’t believe she’d have the nerve to use Cooper’s birth-given name in an official interview like that. It was unprofessional.” She tried to keep her answer as vague as possible in case the young Auror had seen her shove her bag into the woman’s shoulder. She held the locker room door open for the Auror, before entering herself.  
  
“Molly!?” Hollie heard Roxanne’s voice question as soon as the door shut behind her.  
  
“Hey Roxanne, surprise!” the red-headed Auror crossed the room and hugged Roxanne.  
  
When the girls broke apart, the Auror turned back to Hollie. Holding out her hand, she said, “It’s so nice to finally meet Roxanne’s girlfriend! Of course, I recognized you right away from the ruddy paper, but anyway, I’m Molly, Roxanne’s favorite cousin!”  
  
Hollie shook Molly’s hand and continued to stare at the girl. Roxanne’s cousin.  
  
“She’s adorable, Rox,” Molly said as she turned back to Roxanne. “Since you weren’t at the last _few_ dinners at Nana’s I’ll just fill you in that your father has asked me to figure out if you’re ever going to bring her around, or if he’s just going to have to keep sending letters.”  
  
“Molly!” Roxanne rushed over and grabbed the girl’s shoulder. Hollie continued to stare as Roxanne gave her a small smile, before pulling Molly in close for conversation. Feeling slightly helpless and very confused, Hollie turned away to find Alec or Charlotte.  
  
She tried to push away the negativity that was bubbling up in the back of her head. Apparently Roxanne’s parents had also wanted to meet their daughter’s girlfriend, but Roxanne hadn’t wanted her to meet them enough to even bring it up. It just reminded her how very different her feelings were towards Roxanne, versus the opposite.  
  
Instead of finding any of her fellow reserves, Salvador came up to her.  
  
“Hermana!” he greeted her excitedly. *  
  
“Hello, Sal.” Hollie faked a quick smile to hide the bitter feelings that Roxanne was unintentionally giving her. She was eye level with the stout man, and watched curiously as he grinned to her.  
  
“Mi mano isn’t feeling so great today,” he said as he held up the hand that had gotten broken by the Bludger, flexing it into a fist. “Looks like I might be sitting this one out.” *  
  
Hollie felt like the world was playing a joke on her. “What?”  
  
“I don’t go back on my promises, chica,” he elaborated. “You can start today!” *  
  
Hollie couldn’t figure out how to formulate words. As much as her heart was telling her to hug him and thank him, she still felt the need to say, “Salvador, I can’t take a starting spot away from you with so much press coverage.”  
  
Salvador went on about he absolutely insisted on sitting out, claiming that he needed to catch up with Charlotte and hear all about her ninas.* Hollie tried her hardest to listen to what he was saying, but she couldn’t get past the buzzing in her ear that she was about to play in her first match of the year. After he insisted again and again, Hollie conceded and tried to calm her erratic heart.  
  
She was going to play.  
  
“Finnigan!” Hollie jumped when Coach threw the door open. “Why aren’t you dressed yet!? Get moving!”  
  
*  
  
Hollie hovered in the air on her Firebolt 6, level with Livvy and across from the Harpies’ Beaters. Her ears were buzzing with the sounds of thousands of screaming fans chanting the Tornados fight song. She could hear the announcer talking over them about her, telling how Salvador’s hand was still injured from the game the previous weekend.  
  
Her heart was already beating heavily in her chest from nerves and warming up, so she felt like it kicked into overdrive when the referee began reciting the official pre-match rules. She looked up to Alec when the Snitch was released. Still riding the win from the weekend, he hadn’t been nearly as nervous for this match as he was previously. He and Ellie Cooper were in an intense glaring match, not even bothering to try to track the Snitch and get a head start.  
  
Focusing her attention back in, she locked eyes with Livvy and nodded towards the Bludgers when they followed. Being a reserve, Hollie had to be familiar with both left-offensive and right-defensive strategies for whichever one of her teammates she ended up subbing in for. Salvador usually stayed back and played the defensive side, so that was what Hollie would be doing.  
  
She gripped her bat with both hands while she waited for the Quaffle tossup. Sparing one second for a glance, she looked over to Livvy again to see her happily twirling her bat like a baton, relaxed and waiting to start. Hollie hoped one day that could be her, calm and ready for just another match to start.  
  
She looked down to the Chasers next, waiting for the countdown. Terrence was center, as always, and he was hovering across a girl with a green and yellow hijab. Stats from Saanvi Javas had shown that she was tied with Terrence for Quaffle grabs at the start of matches.  
  
The referee’s whistle was blown, and the Quaffle was thrown.  
  
There was a giant sigh from the crowd as the girl snagged the Quaffle out of Terrence’s reach. Bewildered, he quickly shot after her and bumped up against her to try to tug it from her hands. Hollie flew off towards the goalposts, hunting down the Bludger that she saw head in that direction. The first cheer that filled the Tornados’ stands was when Hollie’s Bludger shot towards the right Chaser, making the girl have to avoid it and miss the Quaffle pass.  
  
Hollie grinned when Nora flew underneath and snagged the falling Quaffle, before shooting down the field. Hollie flew towards centerfield, where she waited and watched out for Bludgers.  
  
The stands exploded when a few quick passes lead to Nicholas scoring, bringing the game to 10-0.  
  
The Harpies got possession, and Hollie gripped the handle of her bat and braced herself to hit back the Bludger that one of the Harpies’ Beaters had just sent sailing. Since Hollie had kept the Bludger from flying towards the goalposts, she could soon hear the chuckles from the crowd as the announcer made a lighthearted joke about Hollie protecting her sweetheart. For the press – she told herself – Hollie turned and grinned at Roxanne, who could only spare a smile before she turned back to track where the Harpies Chasers had flown.  
  
After getting the Quaffle back to Tornados’ possession, Hollie flew after the cluster of Chasers and looked for Livvy. One of the things that they’d worked on with Roxanne was double hits – where both of the Beaters would hit the Bludger one after another, to gain force and speed – so after a quick nod from Liv, Hollie batted the Bludger towards her fellow Beater.  
  
Livvy was widely known in the league for her preference to bat one handed, and the crack that filled the stadium as her bat met with the already fast moving ball made even Hollie cringe. She watched, though, as the Harpies Keeper had to nearly dive off his broom to avoid the Bludger, letting Terrence score.  
  
Being a few scores ahead, the crowd started chanting, “Williams, Williams!” at a lull game point, hoping to secure a good win against the Harpies. If they did, their pre-season rankings would skyrocket, as they’d have three wins and only one loss. Hollie looked around the field until she saw Alec floating around the announcer’s box, scanning the field intently.  
  
The game went on for a while with a small amount of scoring, with the Tornados slowly gaining a lead. Hollie couldn’t keep the smile off her face the whole time as she worked with Livvy and against the Harpies Beaters. She hadn’t been in a full, real match in what felt like ages; it reminded her of being back at school and playing on a regular schedule, making her realize how much she had missed the feeling of soaring through the air and playing Quidditch.  
  
A particularly hard shot towards the goalposts had Hollie snapping out of her revere and shooting to defend Roxanne. Without a second to spare, Hollie lunged forward on her broom and expelled the Bludger away from the Keeper. Hollie felt a gust of wind fly past her as her save helped Roxanne prevent Javas’ goal. She kicked the Quaffle to Terrence as Hollie let out a heavy breath of air.  
  
Hollie hardly had time to look at Roxanne before there were gasps and cheers and shouts of Alec’s name. She spun around and shot forward to where Alec was a second behind Ellie in a sudden chase for the Snitch. Searching frantically for where the Bludger had shot off to, Hollie flew in the same direction to do anything to stop the girl and get Alec in the lead.  
  
With a sad groan from the crowd, Ellie’s fingers wrapped around the Snitch. Even though the Tornados had gained a substantial lead and were so close to upsetting, she watched sadly as the Harpies gathered in a celebratory hug in the center of the field.  
  
*  
  
Hollie had her fingers wrapped around four shot glasses. She dropped two of them in front of Alec, causing him to snap his head up from where he’d been running his fingers through his freshly washed hair. Two-for-ones on a Wednesday afternoon were dangerous.  
  
“Stop moping,” Hollie demanded, sliding onto the stool next to him. “You’re far too pathetic looking for the fact that the Harpies just showed up.” Hollie had managed to sneak away from the rest of the team with their arrival, having spotted Alec heading for the bar the second they arrived. She was sure by now that Roxanne and the rest of the Tornados were out on the dance floor enjoying the weekday drink specials.  
  
Alec looked over to her. “I deserve to mope.”  
  
“Then mope in your own head and help me celebrate actually playing in a game.” Hollie grinned when she saw the corner of Alec’s mouth lift. “You can’t win them all and it’s not up to you, even as the Seeker. If we would have been two more goals ahead, we would have beaten them. Now stop sulking and take a damn shot with me.”  
  
Reluctantly, Alec picked up one of the shot glasses. Hollie clanked their glasses together and threw the burning liquid back.  
  
“You were brilliant,” Alec hissed through the fire in the back of his throat. “That double you and Livvy managed was incredible.”  
  
Hollie smiled and grabbed for the second shot glass, downing it before the prickle from the first had left her. “Thanks.”  
  
Hollie dropped the shot glass right inside the first empty one, smiling happily at the memories of the game, despite the loss.  
  
“Endorphins much?” Alec raised his eyebrow at her and finally broke into a smile.  
  
Laughing along with Alec, Hollie signaled towards the bartender for another round. She watched out of the corner of her eye the way Alec eyed up the passing Harpies. Hollie was about to beg him not to start drama when two of the girls broke away from the group. Hollie recognized Ellie, the news-renowned Seeker, and Saanvi, the Chaser that had usurped Terrence, as they walked towards Alec. Hollie clenched her jaw as she watched him tense up when they moved closer.  
  
Before Alec opened his mouth, Ellie Cooper stuck her hand out. “That was a bloody good game, Williams. Closest match I’ve had in a long while.”  
  
Hollie watched as Alec stared at her. When he made no motion to shake her hand, she punched him in the arm.  
  
“Shit, Hollie!” Alec gave her a look and rubbed his arm, before turning back to the girl. Hollie could tell she was trying not to laugh. “Thanks, Ellie. You were brilliant.”  
  
The girl grinned to him, before turning to Hollie. On her broom, Ellie had looked taller than she actually was; sitting, Hollie was still at eye level with the girl. Ellie tucked a strand of auburn hair behind her ear as she said, “I was actually looking for Roxanne when I saw you, so maybe you can pass this along. I just wanted to officially thank the Tornados’ captain for all of the business with the Aurors today. We were worried the press would be nuts in Tutshill, but the security was a lifesaver.”  
  
Thinking back to the horrible woman Hollie had talked with, she couldn’t have agreed more. “I’ll pass it on,” she said with a smile. “See you in the real season.”  
  
With a nod to Hollie and another smile to Alec, Ellie dragged Saanvi off towards the dance floor. Hollie watched as Ellie turned back and shot Alec a grin, before Saanvi tugged her away.  
  
Hollie turned to Alec and watched the way his eyes trailed the girls. “Amusement and _pity_ ,” she said with a smirk.  
  
Alec spun in his stool to her. “What?”  
  
“Tell me, Alec,” Hollie started. Her favorite thing in the world was when she could actually get a one-up on her sarcastic best friend. “Tell me why you didn’t just offer to buy the pretty girl a drink? I would have offered to buy the pretty girl’s pretty friend a drink if I didn’t have a fake girlfriend that would probably fake getting upset.”  
  
He scoffed. “I know we’ve only been friends for five years, Hollie, but at some point you have to remember that I _am_ asexual.”  
  
Hollie raised her eyebrows. “Don’t pull the asexual card with me, arse. You don’t have to want to shag her to think she’s cute and to buy her a drink.”  
  
“Speaking of your _girlfriend_ ,” Alec said, trying to change the subject. “Why aren’t you with Roxanne again?”  
  
She shrugged. “Time with our own friends? Absence makes the heart grow fonder?” In truth, she didn’t know where Roxanne was. She assumed the girl was out on the dance floor with Livvy and Nora, and would come find her if she wanted.  
  
“You’re very bitter for all of the endorphins,” Alec commented, making Hollie give him a look.  
  
Hollie figured that if the press wanted a story, they’d pick one out of anything. They’d managed to write an entire article about Roxanne dating Livvy after helping the drunk girl home over the weekend, so Hollie could only imagine what they’d say about her sitting at the bar instead of dancing with Roxanne.  
  
She tried not to think about the obvious fact that Roxanne would rather spend time with Liv and Nora than she would with Hollie. Even if they were bonding more and more on the Quidditch pitch, Roxanne would still pick spending time with her friends before Hollie. Her thoughts floated back to the interaction with Roxanne’s cousin, Molly, before the game. Roxanne had made it quite obvious that she didn’t feel the same way about introducing Hollie to her family.  
  
Right in the middle of the pity party she was throwing for herself, a pair of arms wrapped around her shoulders. Hollie flailed so much that she spilled her tiny tower of empty shot glasses.  
  
“Speak of the devil,” Alec chuckled at the way Hollie was trying to restack the glasses.  
  
“Talking about me?” Roxanne muttered in hear ear. Hollie could smell a tiny waft of alcohol coming off of the girl; Livvy must have convinced her to at least have one drink. Her skin was warm from dancing as she wrapped her arms tighter around Hollie. The faint press of lips to her ear made the hair on Hollie’s arms stand up as Roxanne whispered, “I think I saw a paparazzi, which means I’m kidnapping you to come dance with me.”  
  
Hollie wanted to sigh, but held it back. That’s why she was being so touchy.  
  
Helpless to do anything but nod, Hollie stood. Alec gave her an eye roll and a wave goodbye, before turning back to his drink.  
  
“I’m just going to pay my tab,” Hollie muttered to the girl resting her chin on her shoulder. She stood and walked around until she got the bartender’s attention.  
  
“Can you send a drink to the Holyhead Seeker from ‘the Seeker whose arse she kicked today’?” Hollie held out a handful of Sickles to pay for her own tab, and the extra drink. The bartender grinned at the generous tip Hollie had left in her slightly intoxicated state, and nodded to her. With one last wave to Alec, Hollie let Roxanne pull her along.  
  
Feeling light and happy from the alcohol and the game time, Hollie didn’t protest when Roxanne dragged her on the dance floor. Letting the buzz from the Firewhisky flow through her, she let her inhibitions and sadness go as she pulled Roxanne’s back against her front and rested her hands on the girl’s hips. As Roxanne started to dance she leaned her head back and said, “Let’s give them something to bloody write about.”  
  
All of Hollie’s fears about being too physical towards Roxanne were pushed away as she and Roxanne moved together. Hollie let Roxanne take the lead as they swayed their hips in tandem.  
  
“Where’d you see the paparazzi?” Hollie asked as she leaned her head on Roxanne’s shoulder. Standing, Hollie could just rest her head without it being an uncomfortable stretch. To anyone it would look like the girls were sharing an intimate dance, and not discussing acting things out for the paparazzi.  
  
It took Roxanne a minute to answer with the music being so loud. “Near the loo,” she eventually replied. She pulled Hollie closer so her hands were pressed on the girl’s stomach. “I saw a man giving me a bizarre look, and I think he had a camera bag. Better to be safe, right?”  
  
Hollie felt herself nodding along, even not fully understanding. She eventually decided that Roxanne probably knew more than she did about how to spot a member of the paparazzi, and just to trust her.  
  
They danced for a few more songs before deciding to call it a night. If anyone had any doubts or speculations, hopefully the way Roxanne had moved her hips against Hollie would deter them. Deciding it would look better if they left at the same time, they made their way around the club to say goodbyes. Hollie couldn’t help but send Alec a smirk when she saw the Harpies Seeker occupying her empty stool.  
  
Roxanne initiated the kiss goodbye in the club as a stunt before they’d leave through the Floo together. Hollie hated the way her stomach still fluttered when Roxanne’s lips moved against hers. No matter how much she wanted to yell at herself that the feelings were getting to be too much, she still parted her lips when Roxanne pushed forward, bringing the kiss to a different level. Alec’s warnings tried to push their way into her head, but Hollie ignored them as she pushed back.


	8. Joke Shop

****All Hollie wanted to do was sleep the afternoon away.  
  
While her and Roxanne’s moment of public affection hadn’t found its way to _The Prophet’s_ daily slander, the article that had been written was nearly worse. Hollie didn’t know how _The Daily Prophet_ still managed to find things to write about concerning her and Roxanne, but the large spectacle made Hollie aware that she wasn’t getting out of the _situation_ with Roxanne any time soon.  
  
As if she even wanted to.  
  
Even though the article that had been published was small, it was still upsetting. The author managed to write themselves in a circle all about Hollie. Side by side there were pictures of her and Alec and her and Roxanne, with a large headline stating, _Finnigan Doesn’t Know What Side of the Fence to Play On_. After reading about her own apparent bisexual tendencies, that not even she knew about, they nailed the coffin shut with a comment _wishing_ that Logan Avery would come out of St. Mungo’s Rehabilitation Center and straighten things out for everyone.  
  
The worst pun ever published.  
  
Alec had laughed so much about the article that Hollie had been wary of bringing up the very real point it had made to crush his joy. Even after Hollie brought up that Ellie wouldn’t like him hanging it on his refrigerator, he still continued to take the piss. He claimed that Ellie appreciated his sense of humor, unlike some friends.  
  
Through all of Alec’s ribbing about the article, Hollie couldn’t bring herself to point out the warning in the end. While he got a kick out of them publishing the idea that Hollie would ever be with a man, he didn’t realize that he’d be sent back to the bench the second Avery came back. Eventually, Avery would be released from rehab, and as much as Roxanne said she wasn’t interested in him, the memories of walking in on the pair in the men’s bathroom still haunted Hollie. She knew her time playing girlfriends with Roxanne was dwindling down.  
  
However, as Hollie rolled over and pressed her face into her pillow, none of that mattered. All that mattered was her cozy blanket, her drawn shades, and a free afternoon to sleep off the early morning practice.  
  
So naturally, she jolted awake when there was a sharp peck at her window. Hollie peered around the room for a few moments and tried to orientate herself. Still mostly asleep, she shoved her blankets off and got up to look through the curtains.  
  
When her windowsill was empty, grumbled curse words fell out of her mouth as she dragged herself back to bed. Stupid owls. There were plenty of other magical residents in her building that the incessant pigeon was probably headed towards.  
  
Hollie stared at her ceiling for a while, thoughts about Avery and the article butting their way into what was supposed to be her relaxing time. Just as she felt herself finally nodding back off, there was another tap on her window.  
  
“Bloody birds!” Hollie shouted as she threw her blanket off again. She walked over to her closet, grabbed an old broom from the back, and headed over to her window with intent.  
  
“Hollie?”  
  
Hollie froze, broomstick still in the air. She spun and looked towards her living room; towards the direction of the voice.  
  
“Hello?” Hollie called out. She snuck out of her bedroom and tiptoed to the living room. Taking a quick look around and finding it empty, Hollie gripped onto the handle of the broomstick tighter. There was a rumor that her building had a ghost. “Who’s there?”  
  
“Fireplace, dork.”  
  
Hollie spun around at the sound of the voice. She jumped when she saw the outline of Roxanne’s face in the flames that suddenly flared up.  
  
“Roxanne?”  
  
“Can I come over? This is really uncomfortable,” Roxanne asked as she grimaced. A hand outlined in fire pushed across her face, wiping it.  
  
Hollie nodded and hoped she actually muttered out an affirmative answer. Roxanne’s head disappeared for a second before she walked through the Floo.  
  
“Hey, thanks,” Roxanne muttered. She had a pile of paper in her hands, and immediately walked past Hollie to dump it onto her coffee table. Hollie watched as several of the scrolls of parchment dropped onto her living room floor. Roxanne looked back up to her. “Hi. You’re in pajamas. And you have a broom.”  
  
“I was sleeping,” Hollie replied. She leaned the broom against the wall as she added, “And there was a bird.”  
  
The side of Roxanne’s mouth lifted for a second. Hollie would have called it _fond_ if she wasn’t absolutely refusing to think about Roxanne reciprocating _anything_. That was a path that Hollie was not letting herself go down. “Lucky you,” Roxanne said. “It must be nice to not have two fighting best friends and a father who employs every owl in Diagon Alley in the matter of hours.”  
  
Hollie furrowed her eyebrows. “What?” She glanced to the stack of papers behind Roxanne. “Are those all letters?”  
  
Roxanne sighed. “It was just a few these past couple days, but today it’s been every _five_ minutes. I had to get away from my flat because they were surrounding the place.”  
  
“From your dad?” Hollie asked. She wondered if the owl she almost attacked with her broom had anything to do with that.  
  
The girl nodded. “He’s been trying to get me to bring you to meet them. Apparently he has _nothing_ better to do – not like he has a shop to run or anything – and has decided to bombard me with owls until I show up.” Hollie watched as she looked back to the stack of letters, before continuing; “Can I just hang out here for a little while? I’d ask Liv, but there’s the second part of why I’m jealous of you and your bed.”  
  
Brain fizzling on the idea flashing through her mind of Roxanne _in_ her bed, Hollie somehow managed to ask, “What’s wrong with Livvy?”  
  
“She and Nora are fighting, so she’s storming around her flat hitting things with her bat and using _Reparo_ to fix them.” When Hollie just stared in horror, Roxanne elaborated. “Nora went home with the Harpies’ center Chaser the night of the Holyhead game. Livvy’s jealous but won’t tell her why; she also hooked up with Nicholas that night, so she literally has _no_ room to talk, but if you tell her that she just hits more things.”  
  
“Huh,” Hollie said, slightly in awe at the whole situation.  
  
Roxanne’s eyebrow shot up. “Huh? Just _huh_?”  
  
“I mean… good for Nora, Saanvi is gorgeous?” Hollie tried. She failed to hide her grin when Roxanne’s face dropped.  
  
“You’re not helping,” she deadpanned.  
  
Hollie chuckled, and watched Roxanne walk around the coffee table and plop down on the couch. Her heart thumped away in her chest at seeing Roxanne in her living room getting situated. Forgetting the thoughts of the girl in her bed, _Roxanne was in her flat_. She watched in silence for a few moments as Roxanne stared at the mountain of letters.  
  
“I’d—” Hollie cut her sentence off as she watched Roxanne. She tried to think how to phrase her offer to meet Roxanne’s parents and stop her pestering father without making it seem like she’d be ridiculously happy to be thought of in that way. “I’d meet your parents with you, if you needed me to… or wanted me to. You did for me.”  
  
Roxanne looked back up. “I haven’t been avoiding them because it’s us.” The girl cringed. “I mean, because it’s fake us,” she corrected herself. “I haven’t talked to them since the article about Tutshill Primary. I don’t know how I’m supposed to ‘come out’ to them when the bloody paper has already published everything they need to know.” Roxanne’s gaze dropped down again as she started going through the letters.  
  
Hollie felt like an arse. She’d been thinking for the past week that Roxanne didn’t want her to meet her family, believing that Roxanne was ashamed. Here, she was just avoiding her parents because she was going through a huge image transformation and didn’t know how to talk to them about it. Hollie crossed the room and sat down next to her.  
  
“I can help you,” Hollie said as she reached for the girl’s hand. Roxanne had a letter between her fingers, and dropped it when Hollie’s hand squeezed hers.  
  
Roxanne turned and looked at her when Hollie pulled her hand away. “How’d you tell your parents?”  
  
The memory made Hollie laugh. “I thought I was being funny and told my parents I wanted them to meet someone,” she explained. Chuckling, she continued; “I must have avoided specific pronouns in my letters for months. I was fifteen and guess I wanted to shock them?”  
  
Roxanne snickered. “Did your parents freak out?”  
  
Hollie shook her head. “Dad slapped a Galleon into Papa’s hand right in front of her, in the middle of Platform nine and three-quarters. I was so mad at them for embarrassing her.”  
  
Happy that her story made Roxanne smile, Hollie said, “It’s not like you’re really coming out, anyway. Get them off your back and then when this is all over bring home some guy you actually like. They’ll just do that thing parents do and assume it was a phase.” She smiled to pretend it wasn’t crushing her to give Roxanne the reassurance that this was only temporary.  
  
Roxanne huffed out a small laugh. “I suppose. Now, I’m going to burn these letters, so unless you want to wear pajamas with little penguins on them to meet my parents…”  
  
Hollie prayed Roxanne didn’t see her blushing as she rushed to her bedroom.  
  
*  
  
“I’m kind of freaking out?” Roxanne’s sentence was phrased as a question. Hollie brushed the soot off of her jeans and stepped out of the Floo in The Leaky Cauldron.  
  
“So, if I walked up and tried to open the front door, you wouldn’t be happy?” Hollie smirked when Roxanne gave her a look. She held the back door of The Leaky Cauldron open and laughed when Roxanne shook her head as she exited. In truth, Hollie would be hiding behind Roxanne for the _entire_ time.  
  
“Funny,” Roxanne replied in an unamused tone. She tugged her wand out of her robes and tapped the bricks leading into Diagon Alley. “Don’t drink anything my dad gives you,” she warned as she headed down the street. Roxanne threaded their fingers together as they neared the shop. Hollie knew it was – as always – just for show, but she still squeezed Roxanne’s hand to try to assure the girl that it would be okay.  
  
As they approached the bright, loud shop, Roxanne stopped in her tracks.  
  
“Roxanne, it’ll be fine,” Hollie started forward again, tugging her arm. She was trying to play the supportive girlfriend role that Roxanne had done for her. “If I’m not completely freaking out, then you—”  
  
“Fred,” she muttered, grounded in her spot. Hollie turned around and saw Roxanne staring into the shop, mouth open. Hollie followed her line of vision and squinted. She couldn’t make out anything but a large mop of curly hair.  
  
“Your brother?” Hollie asked, her heartbeat picking up. She turned back to Roxanne. “The brother you’ve told me horror stories about?”  
  
Roxanne nodded and took a step back. “We can leave. We can come back later.”  
  
A second later the shop door flew open. The mop of hair – connected to a tall body – ran towards the girls.  
  
“Roxy!” Before Hollie could fully pull away, a pair of arms tugged her and Roxanne into a hug. “We were just stopping by to pick up some inventory and to give Mum some grandma time.” The bloke – Roxanne’s brother – finally dropped his arms from around the pair.  
  
“You need a haircut,” Roxanne said to her brother. Hollie moved closer when she felt Roxanne’s hand pull her.  
  
“You have a girl with you,” her brother countered. “A famous girl.” He turned to Hollie and stuck his hand out. “Fred Weasley! I’m a fan. Your defense against Whittle in the Puddlemere final last season was incredible. It pissed my wife off for weeks.”  
  
Hollie stared, bewildered, and dropped Roxanne’s hand to reach out and shake his. “You were happy it pissed your wife off?”  
  
“They’re a strange couple, Hollie,” Roxanne said, still glaring at her brother. “Why are you guys even here?”  
  
“I just told you,” he said, voice full of laughter. “Hannah and I are picking up inventory. And Mum insists on time with Maisie.”  
  
Hollie looked up. “Maisie, as in Maisie Lane, the Puddlemere Beater from the eighties? You named your kid after a Quidditch player?”  
  
Fred grinned to Roxanne. “I like her. Speaking of her, when the hell were you planning on telling me you were into _hers_?” Even though he was still smiling, Hollie could see a bit of put-out feelings seeping onto his face.  
  
Roxanne looked around the street for a second, before turning back to her brother. “Can we go inside, maybe?” Hollie knew she was insisting because the paparazzi would be able to sell ‘meeting the family’ shots for ridiculous sums of money.  
  
Hollie and Roxanne hardly had a chance to get through the shop’s door before Roxanne’s brother turned back around.  
  
“Spill, Sis.”  
  
Roxanne let out an irritated huff and pushed Fred’s shoulder. “There’s someone up at the counter, Bro.”  
  
Fred and Hollie both looked up, and sure enough there was a line of a few people waiting. With a sigh, Fred looked around, before sliding over the top of the counter and greeting them.  
  
Hollie looked around in awe as Roxanne dragged her further inside and through the shop. She’d been in there a dozen or so times growing up; she was a fan of the Skiving Snackboxes when she wouldn’t finish her homework at Hogwarts. Roxanne tugged her through one of the aisles and towards the back, where a spiral staircase led to an upper level. She’d never paid much attention to it as a kid, but she figured it lead to where Roxanne grew up.  
  
Just as they reached the staircase, a head peeked over the ledge. “Roxanne!” the man said enthusiastically. “What a nice surprise! Did you get my letters?”  
  
It was Roxanne’s father. Hollie felt Roxanne’s grip on her hand tighten as the man raced down the steps.  
  
“I’m going to be cleaning up owl droppings on my windowsill for weeks, Dad,” Roxanne complained. Still, she dropped Hollie’s hand and went over to hug her father. When they both let go, Roxanne turned around and smiled to Hollie. “This is my girlfriend, Hollie. Hollie, this is my dad.”  
  
“Hollie Finnigan,” Hollie said as she held out her hand.  
  
“That’s right! I heard Thomas and Finnigan got hitched. Everyone saw it coming back at school,” Roxanne’s dad said, making Hollie smile. “George Weasley!”  
  
Hollie shook his hand and tried not to look at the spot on the side of the man’s face where there was an ear missing. His whole ear. Hollie wondered how she could ask Roxanne about it without being rude. She figured it was probably something to do with his insane shop; they had passed a shelf of ears on their way in.  
  
“Where’s Mum?” Roxanne asked. “I’d kind of like her to be here… for this.” She looked behind her father and frowned.  
  
“Upstairs with Hannah and the baby,” he said. “They aren’t staying, though. I’ll meet you up there after I bail your brother out. I was planning on shutting down early anyway.” With that, George left them and headed to the front of the shop.  
  
Hollie and Roxanne got to the top of the stairs just as Roxanne’s brother reached the bottom. “Rox, wait up!” he called, and raced up the spiral staircase. He took a few deep breaths when he reached the top, and set the box he was carrying down.  
  
“Getting old, Freddie?” Roxanne asked as he grasped the railing for support.  
  
“Shut up,” he wheezed. “Not all of us are professional athletes here.”  
  
Roxanne gave him a few seconds to compose himself, and when he stood, his face was serious. “They aren’t upset with you,” he said softly. When Roxanne furrowed her eyebrows, he continued. “They’re pissed off at _The Prophet_ writers. You remember what happened when we were kids—” his sentence trailed off.  
  
“We got to go to the World Cup for it,” Roxanne said with a grin.  
  
Her brother grinned back at her. “Seriously though,” he continued, “You should have come sooner, but they understand why you didn’t.” He looked over to Hollie for a second, and turned back to Roxanne. “And Dad loves that she’s a Beater.”  
  
Getting Roxanne to finally laugh, Fred smiled. “Hannah and I will get going as soon as Mum gives up Maisie, so you can talk to them.”  
  
“Thanks, Freddie,” Roxanne said. She let go of Hollie’s hand to hug her brother.  
  
Fred slipped into the house when Roxanne let go, leaving just her and Hollie outside the door.  
  
Hollie finally spoke when the door shut. “He’s not so bad,” she said with a small smile.  
  
At that, Roxanne laughed. “You didn’t know him when he was a teenager.”  
  
Looking towards the door, and then back to Roxanne, Hollie asked, “Are you ready?” After taking a deep breath, Roxanne grabbed Hollie’s hand again and nodded. “Don’t be nervous,” Hollie said. “Use that Gryffindor courage.”  
  
Getting Roxanne to laugh always made Hollie happy. After Hollie squeezed the girl’s hand for reassurance, Roxanne opened the door and led her into the house.  
  
Hollie and Roxanne both froze when they stepped into the living room. They watched as the green flames in the Floo died down, and the woman standing at the fireplace turned around.  
  
Hollie felt her heartbeat pick up as she recognized Roxanne’s eyes and shape of her face. The woman had darker skin than Roxanne, and hair was braided and pulled back into a large ponytail. She looked surprised to see them.  
  
“Hi, Mum.” Roxanne’s voice was soft enough that Hollie wouldn’t have heard it if she wasn’t right next to her. She could see the fear on Roxanne’s face as her mum moved closer. Hollie didn’t want to intrude on the moment, so she dropped Roxanne’s hand and took a step back as Roxanne’s mum stopped in front of her and stared for a moment, before pulling her into a hug.  
  
Roxanne instantly apologized for being away for so long, and for all the stress she felt like she caused with _The Daily Prophet_ articles. After hearing the reassurances from her mother, Roxanne turned and introduced Hollie.  
  
“Please, call me Angelina,” the woman replied after a quick handshake. “It’s nice to finally meet the girl in all of the pictures with Roxanne.” Hollie didn’t miss the sarcasm in the woman’s tone. Once the introductions were finished, Angelina said, “Roxanne, if you’d like to show Hollie where you’ll be staying, I’ll grab drinks.”  
  
Hollie turned to Roxanne to see her cringing. “Mum, we’re not spending the night…”  
  
“Don’t be silly,” Angelina said as she waved her hand at Roxanne. “Your father and I aren’t under the impression that you two aren’t sleeping together. We haven’t seen you in ages; you and your girlfriend can stay and visit for the night. We’ll put on the Cannons game.”  
  
When her mum turned and headed to the kitchen, Hollie looked at Roxanne again. Still wincing, Roxanne asked, “Are you free tonight?”  
  
Hollie couldn’t help but smile and laugh. In a quiet tone so only she could hear, she whispered, “It’s fine. I didn’t need a nap anyway.”  
  
“Thanks, my wonderful girlfriend,” Roxanne muttered as she pulled her into a hug. Before Hollie fully returned the hug, Roxanne planted a kiss on her cheek and pulled back. Hollie looked to Roxanne’s mum, but she had already disappeared into the kitchen. Roxanne tugged her down the hall and into a room, before shutting the door behind them.  
  
“I am so sorry,” Roxanne said as she let go of Hollie’s hand. For a few bewildered seconds Hollie thought she was apologizing for the kiss, before she realized the girl’s tone had switched to the one Hollie was familiar with; the one that Hollie knew meant there was no one to impress around. “I had no idea she’d want us to stay.”  
  
“It’s okay,” Hollie said, hoping she sounded more confident than she felt. Her eyes fell behind Roxanne and to the bed behind her, before turning quickly back. “It’s fine. I can sleep on the floor.”  
  
At that, Roxanne rolled her eyes. “We can both fit. Molly and I do it all the time.” When Hollie opened her mouth to protest, Roxanne grabbed her hand and dragged her out of the room before she could speak. When they got into the hallway, Roxanne turned around for a quick second and smirked, knowing she had won. Hollie rolled her eyes and hid her smile.  
  
When they got back in the living room, Roxanne’s father was sitting in one of the chairs, eying them both. Hollie felt her pulse quicken under the scrutiny, and followed Roxanne to the couch to try to evade it. They plopped onto the couch just as Angelina levitated a tray of drinks out into the living room. Remembering what Roxanne had said about beverages, she waited until Roxanne took a sip before she drank her own.  
  
“Tough loss last week,” Angelina said as she joined them. “With that, and the upset with the Magpies, I’m surprised _The Prophet_ didn’t have a field day.”  
  
Roxanne let out an unamused laugh. “Since when does the sports section of _The Prophet_ actually report anything that has to do with Quidditch?” When Angelina and George both nodded, Roxanne turned to Hollie and said, “It’ll still be a tough one next week against the Magpies.”  
  
Hollie nodded. “Lavoie sat out for the Magpies’ last game; a lot of stats are saying that’s why they lost. It’ll give Alec a challenge since he’ll be starting again. Our stats would skyrocket if we could beat them.”  
  
“Lavoie will give Alec a run for his money,” Angelina commented. Hollie watched as a small smile formed on her face. “I worked with him and the Magpies back in the day when Quidditch wasn’t just a gossip topic; he’s a quick one. And tricky.”  
  
“I’m sure Alec will do great,” Roxanne said as she turned to Hollie and smiled, and bumped their knees together. To avoid Roxanne’s glance, Hollie looked down to where their thighs were now touching. Snapping Hollie out of her revere a moment later, Roxanne wrapped her arm around Hollie’s back and tugged her closer to settle into the couch together.  
  
“Speaking of the ruddy paper,” George said lightheartedly. “We’re all here. Care to finally fill your parents in?”  
  
When Hollie snuck a glance at the girl she was cuddling with, Roxanne was frowning. Hollie could feel the girl’s fingers tapping nervously on her hip as Roxanne finally explained things to her parents. “I’m sorry. It all happened really fast. Logan and I weren’t great, and Hollie and I were growing closer. He didn’t take things well, and handled it really poorly at the school.”  
  
Angelina sat up and leaned her elbows on her knees. “We read all of that in the paper, Roxanne.” The woman’s eyes found Hollie’s in half of a second. “Tell us what actually happened.”  
  
Hollie could feel stomach turn with fright.  
  
“Mum—”  
  
“It’s okay,” Hollie turned and gave Roxanne the best fake smile she could muster. “I had fancied Roxanne for a really long time. Alec gave me so much shi— about it.” Hollie could feel her cheeks going pink at her language, and how quickly the story had tumbled out. “I thought Roxanne was with Avery until we started getting to know each other better.” Hollie smiled at Angelina and George. “The rest… is printed in the paper.”  
  
When Angelina and George both laughed, Hollie let out a breath she didn’t realize she was holding. Hollie turned to Roxanne and saw the girl was looking right at her. She smiled at her as sweetly as she could muster, trying to remind Roxanne that this was supposed to be a cute moment.  
  
After Roxanne turned away to look at her parents, Hollie relaxed a little more. She was thankful that Roxanne didn’t realize the truthfulness in her statement, but the feeling of disappointment crept into her stomach as Roxanne filled in the spaces with her own account of the ‘story’. She completed it with a little tangent about figuring out about her feelings for girls. Specifically, the one with the Irish accent.  
  
Hollie listened with a heavy heart. Familiar with the family bonding from meeting her own parents, she tried not to believe that this was really Roxanne coming out to her parents with Hollie at her side.  
  
“I don’t have an Irish accent,” Hollie retorted, playing the part and faking a scowl back to Roxanne.  
  
“Whatever you say,” Roxanne teased back, tugging Hollie closer and pressing a kiss onto her cheek. When Roxanne pulled away, Hollie could feel the spot on her cheek tingle.  
  
“We’re happy for you, Roxanne,” George eventually said. Hollie could see a smirk growing as he said: “at least she plays for a good team, this time.”  
  
At that, Roxanne sighed and shook her head. She still smiled to her father.  
  
“I don’t have much planned for dinner,” Angelina eventually said. “This visit was also sprung on me.” Hollie didn’t miss the look she shot at her husband. “I can heat some leftovers up and we’ll put on the Cannons/Bangers game.”  
  
“Sounds great, Mum,” Roxanne replied. Hollie watched as Angelina and George both left the room for the kitchen.  
  
When they were out of hearing range, Hollie exhaled again. She sagged back against Roxanne, and shut her eyes. Keeping her voice low, Roxanne whispered, “That was absolutely terrifying.”  
  
“You did fine,” Hollie whispered back. “Really.” Roxanne didn’t need to know just how real it actually felt.  
  
Thanks,” Roxanne whispered back, squeezing her for a sideways hug. “They bought it and they like you. Anyone that can hold their own about Quidditch can win over my family pretty quickly.”  
  
Angelina and George returned with food a few moments later, and Angelina served up the leftovers while George fidgeted with the wireless until he found the station with the pre-game talk. He put it on a lower volume, and settled back into his chair.  
  
They ate with lively conversation about the match. Hollie found it easy to ask questions about the joke shop, and she and Roxanne talked about their Quidditch season so far in between commentary from the game. Hollie got to hear stories about Fred and Roxanne as kids, complete with a tale of Roxanne pouting at the table for _hours_ for being a picky eater.  
  
Hollie smiled as she watched Roxanne scrape the peas away from her food with a scowl.  
  
Since she and Roxanne had an early morning at practice and no sleep between, both of the girls were yawning shortly after the dinner dishes had been cleared. Roxanne and Hollie settled into their previous position; Hollie relaxed into Roxanne’s arms, and Roxanne rested her head against Hollie’s. As the humorous announcer complained about the Cannons dropping the Quaffle for no reason, Roxanne huffed out tired laughter. Hollie turned to her, and in a whisper, Roxanne muttered, “We play them right before the start of the regular season. I’ll get to hang out with you in the dugout if they keep up their streak; Coach will want to give Elijah some more game time.”  
  
Hollie smiled at that. She wanted to tell Roxanne how she was looking forward to it, but before she could get a word out, Roxanne closed the space between them and kissed her. Quick and chaste, Roxanne pulled away and smiled to her.  
  
Breaking the eye contact, Hollie glanced over to Roxanne’s parents. Seeing that they were in a passionate argument about the match’s calls, she asked, “What was that for?”  
  
Following her line of sight, Roxanne said, “Appearances, mostly.” Her small smile was taken over by a yawn. “I’m exhausted. Livvy’s anger at practice really took too much out of me.”  
  
Still bewildered about the kiss, Hollie could only manage a nod as she agreed about Livvy. The moment was gone as quick as it came, so Hollie muttered, “Why do you think I was trying to nap when you showed up today?”  
  
In retaliation, Roxanne dug her fingers into Hollie’s side. Hollie squirmed, laughing, and tried to pull away until Roxanne stopped. Her arms wrapped all the way around Hollie’s stomach and tugged her closer.  
  
Every time Roxanne acted a certain way, or kissed her a certain way, Hollie found it harder to remind herself that it was all for show, and not because she was reciprocating feelings. As she settled back into Roxanne’s arms for appearances, she felt her smile slipping away to Alec’s over-hashed warnings, and her own fears. Hollie could still taste the lip gloss transferred over from Roxanne’s kiss as she lost herself in the thoughts of what it would be like when everything went back to normal.  
  
She jumped when Roxanne shook her. “You sleeping?” the girl whispered.  
  
“Nah,” Hollie replied softly. “Listening.” Her voice betrayed her a second later as she yawned.  
  
When the words, “let’s go to bed,” came out of Roxanne’s mouth, Hollie woke right up. Untangling themselves from their position on the couch, Roxanne stood and stretched as Hollie sat forward. After they said their goodnights with promises not to skip out on breakfast, Roxanne took Hollie’s hand and dragged her down the hall towards her childhood bedroom.  
  
Hollie managed to keep her mouth closed through the goodnights, but as Roxanne reached for the button on her jeans, a noise slipped out. When Roxanne looked up and saw Hollie’s face, she frowned. “We’ve been in the locker rooms together for five years now, Hollie; I’m not worried if you see me in my underwear for the thousandth time. I think the penguin pajamas this morning were better blackmail material than this.”  
  
Hollie scowled to her. When Roxanne raised her eyebrow as a challenge, Hollie silently retaliated by unbuttoning her own jeans and letting them fall to the floor. “Do you have something I could sleep in, sweetheart?”  
  
The girl laughed and turned to go through the dresser in her old room. With Roxanne’s back to her, Hollie reached under her t-shirt and maneuvered her bra off, slipping it through her sleeve and dropping it on the floor along with her jeans.  
  
Roxanne produced an old pair of shorts, which she tossed to Hollie. Satisfied with her t-shirt and the shorts, Hollie folded her other clothes and looked over to the bed to avoid staring at Roxanne changing.  
  
“When you said you and Molly used to share all the time, how old were you?” Hollie asked as she crossed the room. She set her things down on the floor next to the bed, before sitting on it and facing Roxanne. To avoid letting her eyes drag down Roxanne’s legs in her own shorts, Hollie kept eye contact with her.  
  
Roxanne flipped the light switch off and joined her on the bed before answering. “We were kids.” She couldn’t see, but she was sure Roxanne was smirking as she reached behind them to tug the duvet down. Hollie stood to let her arrange the sheets, and watched as she laid down in the bed. When Hollie opened her mouth to suggest the floor again, Roxanne immediately spoke over her. “Get in the bed, Hollie.”  
  
After a huff, Hollie listened. She shivered as she felt her leg brush up against Roxanne’s, and their hands bumped as she situated herself. Even though Hollie was nodding off on the couch before, she felt wide awake as she moved her hand onto her stomach.  
  
Beside her, Roxanne yawned and turned on her side, facing Hollie. “Thank you.”  
  
Confused, Hollie turned over. “For what?”  
  
Eyes finally adjusting to the dark, Hollie saw the outline of Roxanne’s smile. “Pretending to be my girlfriend for the press.”  
  
Hollie returned the smile. “You’ve been a good girlfriend.”  
  
At that, Roxanne laughed. “I’m glad I have your approval. I didn’t know if I could pull off… being bisexual.” Her voice wavered as she ended her sentence. “That sounded really offensive after I said it. Sorry.”  
  
Laughing, Hollie said, “I get it.”  
  
They laid in the quiet for a while before Roxanne spoke again. “Can I ask you something?”  
  
Hollie had her eyes shut, but she wasn’t quite asleep. “You just did,” she muttered, exhaustion creeping up on her again. She peeked one eye open to see Roxanne giving her a dry look, and grinned. “What?”  
  
“How did you know you liked girls?”  
  
She blinked, processing the question. “Like… instead of guys?”  
  
Roxanne frowned at her. “That’s generally what being a lesbian means, right?” Hollie sighed at Roxanne’s sarcasm.  
  
“I’m probably not the best person to answer that,” Hollie eventually said. “I grew up with two dads who realized they were in love after assuming they were straight for seventeen years. They tried not to teach us the same mistakes, I suppose.  
  
“It probably really started from my obsession with female Quidditch players when I was younger… but like… more than just admiration when I look back, if that makes any sense. Also, I was homeschooled, and when I got to Hogwarts it was just really hard to talk to pretty girls.”  
  
After Hollie chuckled, Roxanne asked, “You just kind of always knew?”  
  
Hollie shrugged the shoulder she wasn’t lying on. “A lot of it was physical, also. I’ve never had the desire to go and kiss or shag a boy like I have for girls. It’s different for everyone, though. I don’t think it’s anywhere near a black and white topic. I just happen to be on the very side of the gay scale – or the pendulum, for those lovely bisexuals out there.” Hollie grinned when Roxanne laughed.  
  
After a few moments of silence, Roxanne said, “It was never something I’d even heard about growing up.” When Hollie furrowed her eyebrows, Roxanne said, “Being bisexual. I didn’t know you could fancy both until I joined The Tornados and met Livvy. And that’s just a whole other special case.” They both dissolved into laughter at the thought of their teammate. Roxanne settled onto her back again and yawned. “I’m going to fall off my broom at practice tomorrow. Goodnight, Hollie.”  
  
As she watched Roxanne relax into the bed, she tried not to think about how easy it would be to slide over and kiss her goodnight. In another life, maybe she’d slide her hand onto the girl’s stomach, and press their foreheads together to hold her close.  
  
She turned onto her back. “Goodnight, Roxanne.”


	9. Tiny Kiss

The bed Hollie and Roxanne were sleeping on was too small to actually roll over all of the way on, so Hollie shifted onto her side and scooted closer to Roxanne. The sun was just starting to shine through Roxanne’s bedroom window and the blankets were kicked down at Roxanne’s feet. Hollie pressed her forehead to the back of Roxanne’s neck and intertwined their legs as she thought about what it’d be like if she could have this all the time.  
  
She knew the guilt would come back to haunt her, but for just a few moments as daylight broke, Hollie wanted to hold Roxanne close. She shut her eyes and relaxed her head onto her other arm. It would be easy enough to pretend she had rolled over in her sleep for some accidental cuddling, and Roxanne would never know that Hollie just wanted to feel what it was like to actually hold the girl she’d been in love with for so long, if only for a few sleepy moments.  
  
Hollie tensed when she felt Roxanne stir, and held her breath as Roxanne shifted closer on the bed so her back was against Hollie’s torso. When the girl’s breathing became steady with sleep again, Hollie finally exhaled. In the new position, Hollie’s hand rested on the bed next to Roxanne’s stomach.  
  
Already aware that she was going to feel guilty, Hollie threw her nerves out the window and wrapped her arm around Roxanne’s waist to pull her closer, so the girl’s back was against her front. She exhaled softly as to not wake the sleeping girl, and waited for the morning to come.  
  
Sleep found her sporadically, but Hollie mostly stayed awake and let her thoughts get the better of her. As she listened to Roxanne’s soft breathing, Hollie thought about their conversation from the previous day; she remembered the way the girl had stared when Hollie told Roxanne’s parents about the feelings she always had for their daughter. The small surprise Roxanne’s face had shown, before she quickly turned away. She thought about later that night, when Roxanne asked how she knew she was a lesbian, and the way she replied with more questions.  
  
Hollie knew she was just getting her hopes up; she knew Roxanne was just trying to be a friend and get to know her, but as she pulled the girl’s body closer to hers, Hollie let herself be selfish and believe that she might have a chance with Roxanne one day.  
  
Eventually Roxanne did wake up, and Hollie feigned waking up and being embarrassed as Roxanne laughed. Hollie hardly had to pretend as Roxanne traced her fingers along Hollie’s arm a few times before pulling away.  
  
“For some reason,” Roxanne mused aloud as they got dressed, “I knew you’d be cuddlier in your sleep.” As Roxanne put on her jeans from the previous day, she turned and laughed. “I didn’t picture you as the big spoon in this relationship, though.”  
  
Hollie laughed at that. In a fake sultry voice, she said, “I have been known to surprise.” When Roxanne’s face lit up with surprised laughter, Hollie added, “I had to hold you down so you’d stop kicking off the blankets.”  
  
“Ha,” Roxanne deadpanned. “At least I don’t mutter about Quidditch in my sleep.”  
  
Hollie felt her smile drop. “I don’t mutter in my sleep,” she said sheepishly. “You’re lying.”  
  
Grinning, Roxanne said, “Just like you don’t have a brogue?”  
  
A knock on the door interrupted what Hollie would almost call _flirting_ , and Roxanne shot her another smirk as if she had won. Hollie shook her head as to say their discussion wasn’t over as Roxanne called out: “We’re awake!”  
  
“Breakfast,” Angelina’s voice called through the door. They heard footsteps heading away, so they both headed towards the door, the moment gone. When Roxanne grabbed her hand, Hollie gave her a small smile, to which the girl returned with one of her own.  
  
*  
  
Hollie felt as if she was on autopilot for the rest of the week. Every morning she’d get up before the sun to make it to practice, and every afternoon she napped until one of her teammates – Alec, mostly – showed up through her Floo and woke her up with the promise of whiskey and fresh air.  
  
Practices were draining. The Montrose Magpies were currently in the first spot in the preseason rankings with only one loss, so Coach Figby was running the team through speed drills and using Sobriety Spells in preparation for the match that weekend. Coach put up another ban against going out the night before, but it didn’t seem to cause too much annoyance, as Nora, Livvy, and Nicholas were currently on hostile terms.  
  
Roxanne filled Hollie in when she asked; she explained that the siblings had gotten in a fight after Livvy’s indecision, and the three of them were heartbroken and bitter. The following day at practice, Roxanne had taken the lead in making sure that none of them let it affect their gameplay. For not the first time, Hollie was glad to be outside of their group of friends.  
  
The weekend eventually came, and with it brought the game against the Magpies. The Tornados traveled to Montrose for their game, so with their average ranking and visitors disadvantage, the Tutshill team wasn’t predicted a win.  
  
Hollie and Alec separated off from the rest of the team when they let go of the Portkey that had brought them into Montrose. They weren’t surprised to see a hoard of people wearing black and white. The Tornados players instantly stood out in their bright blue jerseys.  
  
“I blame your Slytherin roots,” Alec said when they were out of earshot. When Hollie gave him an annoyed look, he held up his hands and said, “Just saying! I don’t think a gay Hufflepuff would have knowingly cuddled a straight person. Bad form, Hollie.”  
  
“Mr. Williams! Miss Finnigan!” Hollie and Alec both looked up to the waiting reporter. They’d managed to separate themselves from the rest of the team and got targeted. “Any comments on your friends-to-lovers whirlwind relationship?”  
  
“I love this,” Alec said to Hollie. “I don’t ever want _The Daily Prophet_ to be taken over by semi-intelligent people.”  
  
Hollie sighed loudly and shouted, “No comment!” before grabbing Alec by the kit and dragging him off. Hollie frowned at him when they made it through the crowd and to the locker rooms. “I blame your ‘Ravenclaw roots’ for the excessive annoyance you bring on me.”  
  
Already geared up, Hollie sat on the bench next to Alec to listen to their coach’s speech. Hollie was mildly surprised when Roxanne sat down next to her, but smiled at the girl nonetheless. Roxanne had been busy ‘dealing’ with Nora that morning, giving Hollie and Alec time to catch up. She readjusted the tape on the handle of her bat as she listened.  
  
“Austen!” Coach barked when everyone was seated. Hollie’s gaze shot over to Charlotte, who looked up in surprise. “Higgins is out with spell damage on her elbow today.” He looked over and grimaced to where a very angry magically sobered Nora sat. She’d taken a Hangover Draft, which got rid of her vomiting but put her out of commission for the match. “You’re going to be left side. If we can get a jump on them; Williams, I am talking to you now—” he paused and scowled when Alec waved to him. “If we can get the Quaffle down the field and get the Snitch quick enough, they won’t have a chance at getting the point jump on us. Anything we can prevent moves them down and us up in rankings.”  
  
After a hands-in cheer, the team headed out of the locker room and towards the pitch. Hollie found herself walking next to Roxanne, not having separated from sitting in the locker room. She leaned in and bumped shoulders with the girl, and smiled when Roxanne looked up. “Good luck today, sweetie,” Hollie muttered, grinning.  
  
Roxanne chuckled. “Thanks, dear.” They both mounted their brooms and when the jeers from the Magpies’ fans started, they flew out onto the field. Hollie was only next to Roxanne for a few seconds before the girl veered off to warm up.  
  
Same as the outside of the Magpies’ stadium, the stands were filled black and white. The few spots of blue stood out as Hollie flew towards the visitor’s dugout and settled into another game on the bench.  
  
She looked up when Nora and Elijah plopped down on either side of her. Hollie smiled at her fellow regular bench mate, before turning to Nora. There was a bandage wrapped around her elbow in case anyone snapped pictures of them on the bench. The girl’s anger was radiating around her, so Hollie scooted a little closer to Elijah. She felt bad for the boy so far that season; he hadn’t gotten any game time. With the Tornados’ win-loss record being at an even two-two, their coach didn’t want to risk taking Roxanne out.  
  
Hollie leaned her elbows on her knees and focused on the game. She wished Alec was with her; as much as she was proud of him for how well he’d been doing so far, she missed his comments and their discussions during the match.  
  
Terrence snagged the Quaffle possession at the tossup, and the stands filled with sighs as he shot off towards the Magpies’ goalposts. Between him and Charlotte passing back and forth, they brought the Quaffle down the field and scored for the Tornados within the first minute. Hollie and Elijah both stood off the bench and cheered. As she sat down, Hollie snuck a glance over her shoulder to see Nora sitting, a frown on her lips and a crease in her brows.  
  
When the cheers died down, Hollie looked around the field for Alec. She saw him floating over by the announcer’s post, looking around the field with intent. After she watched Alec for a few moments, and kept an eye on Livvy and Sal, she looked for the Magpies’ Seeker. Lavoie was hovering over by the goalposts and Roxanne.  
  
Hollie watched for a few moments as Roxanne shifted in front of each of the goalposts, anticipating the Quaffle return from the Magpies’ Chasers. Just as they reached scoring position, Lavoie shot away from his stationary position and crossed in front of Roxanne, distracting her just enough to allow the Magpies to tie the score.  
  
“Foul!” Coach bellowed from where he was pacing the dugout. “That’s a bloody foul!” Hollie grimaced as he fumbled to get his whistle into his mouth.  
  
No infractions were called, and Roxanne tossed the Quaffle to Nicholas to put it into play as Coach kicked the wall.  
  
The Quaffle changed possession a few times without points being scored as the six Chasers on the field became rougher with each other. Yellow penalty sparks shot out of the referee’s wand over and over, and Hollie sat at the edge of her seat as hoped none of The Tornados’ players would get red sparks. They were spread thin enough through their reserves as it was, and couldn’t afford any more substitutions.  
  
After a long lob of a pass from Nicholas, Charlotte pulled a speedy stop and go flight pattern to score. Hollie listened with pride as the announcer talked about the brilliant goal and talked about Charlotte a little more, since she was a reserve and a therefore a rare discussion topic.  
  
Hollie’s eyes snapped to the other end of the field when she saw red sparks in her peripheral vision. There was a pause in the game while the referee and one of the Magpies’ Beaters argued.  
  
Hollie turned to Nora. “What happened?”  
  
When Nora simply shrugged at her, Hollie had enough. “You’re being a child.” The words slipped out before Hollie had fully figured out what she was going to say, but she held her ground when Nora turned to her and glared.  
  
“Bugger off,” she muttered. “Not everyone gets to be perfect and happy like you and Roxanne.”  
  
Hollie just managed to resist a bitter laugh. Friends or not, Roxanne hadn’t trusted telling the party girl about such an important secret. “You have to talk to Livvy and your brother if you want to solve this,” Hollie eventually replied. She felt like a little bit of a hypocrite, but she knew the first step would be talking things out. “Do you have feelings for her?”  
  
It surprised Hollie when Nora actually looked thoughtful about the topic. “Nick does,” she muttered quietly. “And I know Liv fancies me—” she paused for a moment, biting her lip, “—more than him, anyway.”  
  
They watched the game for a few moments as Hollie processed the confession. Each team’s Keeper blocked most of the goal attempts, keeping the Tornados _just_ above the Magpies, points wise.  
  
“I like her when I drink,” Nora eventually muttered. “But I know Nick loves her all the time.”  
  
Hollie turned and looked to where the tiny Beater was flying across the field and calling out plays to Salvador.  
  
“Maybe…” Hollie paused to gather her thoughts. “Maybe you guys need to slow down and figure things out before you go out tonight.” Hollie cringed as the Magpies scored in the middle of her sentence. She waited for the cheering to go down before she said, “You know, spend some time sober and figure out what feelings are just Firewhisky induced.”  
  
Nora was silent for a while as the game went on. The red sparks from earlier – Hollie learned from the announcer – were one of the Magpies Chasers being taken out. After a steal from Terrence, the man had grabbed for one of his Beater’s bats, giving himself enough penalty sparks to be taken out. The new Chaser single-handedly brought the Magpies to the lead with tricky plays.  
  
“As it looks,” Nora eventually muttered, “There won’t be too much celebrating tonight.”  
  
Hollie huffed. “They’re playing to Roxanne’s weaknesses. She has trouble watching for last minute handoffs. ”  
  
At that, Nora chuckled. “You two are actually adorable. I tell her that all the damn time at practices and she doesn’t listen until I toss the ball to Terrence and score on her.”  
  
If Hollie’s laugh was bitter that time, Nora didn’t notice.  
  
With Nora in a slightly less hostile mood, Hollie settled into watching the game and listening to the girl’s gameplay comments. It was neat to get a perspective from someone who was usually right on the field with her teammates; Nora pointed out little things that Hollie didn’t notice about their fellow Tornados. Hollie tried to absorb the facts as quickly as she could for her own gameplay improvement. She also tried to return the favor as much as possible, giving her a viewer’s sight at some of their habits.  
  
“Nicholas hugs the sidelines a lot,” Hollie muttered as she watched him skim the stands before dropping the Quaffle to a waiting Terrence. There were several sad gasps as some of the spectators tried to jump for the Quaffle, but Terrence grabbed it just in time. Hollie was sure the boys were laughing about messing with the opposing team’s fans. “He’s got to be careful for fans reaching up and trying to grab his broom. He’s come closer than he realizes a few times.” Hollie turned to see Nora nodding along and watching intently. She smiled to herself, glad she could get the girl out of her sulking.  
  
As the score climbed on both sides, the Chasers on both teams had to get more and more creative in trying to keep the Quaffle away.  
  
“Is Terrence doing the Woollongong Shimmy?” Hollie snickered as she watched the darker skinned Chaser zig-zag his way across the field. The few Tornados fans throughout the stands laughed along with the announcer’s joy at the obscure move.  
  
At first Hollie thought the pick-up of chatter was due to Terrence, but when the crowd started chanting, “Lavoie, Lavoie!” Hollie’s eyes scanned the field for Alec and the other Seeker. It wasn’t until she looked wildly around and saw fans looking up, that she did too.  
  
She could barely make out the two specks in the air as both of the Seekers flew higher and higher. The crowd’s cheers died off as everyone waited for the pair to come back to the ground and to figure out if either one was successful.  
  
The specks quickly got bigger, as if Alec and Lavoie were speeding towards the ground. Alec was behind the man, so Hollie cheered for him as the crowds picked up. When Lavoie kept going towards the stands, Hollie screamed herself hoarse at Alec to catch up.  
  
Until, Alec stopped in the center of the field. For a few bewildered seconds Hollie stared at him like he was mental, until he released the Snitch from his clasped hand. It floated around his head a few times as the Tornados fans screamed.  
  
They won.  
  
*  
  
Hollie beamed with pride in the middle of the locker room. Even though she hadn’t gotten to play, she watched as Alec held the captive Snitch above his head and basked in the cheers from their teammates.  
  
Fizzy champagne was broken out in celebration, and drinks were passed all around before their coach’s whistle broke through the noise.  
  
“I don’t want _any_ bloody articles in the paper tomorrow. You’re freaking wizards; put up a Silencing Charm on your own house. We’re visiting at Puddlemere next weekend, and none of you hellions can afford any more penalty sparks after tonight.” Coach bellowed over the voices. Even through his threats, he was smiling at the amazing upset The Tornados had managed. “Practice is tomorrow at ten! Don’t be late! And Higgins, if you vomit on the bloody field again—”  
  
It was only when Alec shouted, “Party at Finnigan’s!” that Hollie’s smile dropped.  
  
Which was how, within the hour, Hollie’s living room was filled with half of a team of rowdy, celebrating Tornados players. Hollie casted a Silencing Charm the second they arrived, along with a spell that dimmed the lights in the room to set a more casual mood than a club they would have picked.  
  
Hollie used her wand to move the coffee table from the center of the room for a makeshift bar. She ducked when the Snitch that Alec had released in her apartment shot past her, causing the table to drop onto the ground with a thud. Thankfully for her neighbors below her, her Silencing Charm was working.  
  
“Alright there, Finnigan?” Alec called from his spot on the couch. Champagne and celebratory shots had already been consumed, and Alec was growing louder after every drink.  
  
“I don’t know why I’m friends with you,” Hollie called out, not bothering to turn around. A few of their teammates snickered at them. She summoned a few bottles of Firewhisky and elf rum from her cupboard and set them on the table. With a flick of her wand, she set one of the bottles to pour out shots for her teammates.  
  
All of the chairs from around her kitchen table had been dragged into her living room, and the Tornados had created a circle around the room. She waved her wand again and sent the shots flying to her teammates. When one stopped in front of Elijah, Hollie watched him peer around curiously, before holding it in his hand.  
  
“Just don’t inhale it, mate,” Hollie said as she watched Elijah stare at the brown liquid. When he looked up at her in surprise, she chuckled. “Tilt your head back, too.”  
  
After a small nod, he did as Hollie said. When he swallowed the liquid with only a slight grimace, the rest of the team cheered and threw theirs back.  
  
“Trust the Irish one to teach the young lad to take a shot,” Alec said with a terrible imitation of a brogue. Hollie rolled her eyes and threw back her own shot as the rest of her team laughed. She crossed the room and plopped down onto the couch in between Elijah and Roxanne. Stiffness washed away from the buzz of the liquor, Hollie smiled easily at Roxanne. Roxanne grabbed her hand and pressed a kiss to her temple, and whispered an apology for laughing. Hollie gave her a look when she pulled back, and saw Roxanne was still grinning; she was second only to Alec for making fun of Hollie’s accent.  
  
“This makes me miss Hogwarts Quidditch parties,” Livvy said as she leaned one of Hollie’s kitchen chairs back onto two legs. She took a small sip of her drink before she said, “Slytherin’s were the best.”  
  
“No way!” Roxanne argued. She let go of Hollie’s hand to lean forward on the couch. “Gryffindor’s parties were amazing! Professor Longbottom shut us down _so_ many times.”  
  
“Ha!” Alec laughed aloud. “Gryffindors were just rash enough to get caught. Ravenclaws, on the other hand…” his sentence trailed off as he summoned himself another shot.  
  
“Hufflepuff was lucky,” Charlotte said. “We could always sneak to the kitchen and go all night.”  
  
“Hufflepuffs go all night,” Elijah said, grinning. “I want that on shirt.” With a chuckle, he added, “it’s bloody true, though. One time some of the elves brought us breakfast when we were still awake.”  
  
Hollie summoned another round of shots for everyone. “No one could hear us down in the dungeons,” she eventually added. “And the lighting from the water made for a lot of fun during the celebrations.”  
  
They went on for a while, arguing for their old school houses like they were seventeen again. Drinks were passed around as the team began reminiscing about some of their old Hogwarts Quidditch games. Salvador even talked about the pitch in his backyard as a child in Mexico, how he and all of the other magical kids would play for days straight.  
  
Roxanne leaned back into the couch next to Hollie as they listened to Livvy go on about a particularly epic Slytherin party when she was captain. Hollie had been a first year, and had very faint memories of the night. They intertwined their fingers as Hollie leaned her head on Roxanne’s shoulder. She was sure it was the alcohol making her feel more affectionate than normal, but she also knew that most of their teammates still believed they were really dating. At least, that’s how she reasoned her actions.  
  
The conversation eventually shifted to the game that night, and everyone listened as Alec retold the story of being up in the sky with Lavoie. He talked about how they were both trying to throw each other off their brooms in order to get the Snitch, and about the moment of stilled silence when Lavoie realized that Alec had grabbed it before him. And how, after Lavoie noticed, he instantly flew off towards his locker room in anger. Hollie watched as the mentioned Snitch still fluttered helplessly around her flat.  
  
Livvy piped up right after, talking about the dirty plays he made against Roxanne and the others, with his tactic of flying in front and being a general distraction. Terrence even added in about how he accidentally flew into Nicholas.  
  
“Nora and Nicholas couldn’t make it?” Hollie asked Roxanne in a low voice. She noticed that the Chaser twins were the only ones who weren’t present in her living room shindig.  
  
Roxanne shook her head. “They’re spending some sibling time together, she said. She also mentioned you and her had a talk on the bench,” the girl added.  
  
Hollie lifted her head and looked at Roxanne. “What did she say?” She glanced around for a second to make sure no one was paying attention to them, before turning back to Roxanne.  
  
The girl smiled. “Just how you helped her out. So, thank you.”  
  
Returning the smile, Hollie said, “It wasn’t a problem.” They both held the eye contact for a few seconds. With the combination of the way Roxanne was looking, and the alcohol, Hollie’s cheeks felt warm.  
  
“Hate to break this up,” Livvy interrupted, suddenly standing right above them. Hollie and Roxanne both jumped apart. Livvy snorted as Hollie realized that most of their teammates were laughing at them. “We’re heading out. There’s a Muggle bar that just opened up a little south of Tutshill.”  
  
“The magic paparazzi won’t know about it yet,” Terrence clarified. Hollie looked to see most of her teammates preparing to leave.  
  
Locking eyes with Alec, Hollie raised an eyebrow at him in question. Alec grinned. “I’m not going out. Ellie’s stopping by before her team does one of those crazy night practices.”  
  
“Insane; absolutely mad, Gwenog Jones is.” Hollie muttered through several _awws_ from their teammates that made Alec blush. She shook her head. “I can’t believe she puts them through that.”  
  
“We still do have practice at ten tomorrow,” Roxanne added to the group, captain’s tone taking over.  
  
There were a few random snickers from the group, and Livvy said, “We’ll be fine, Mum. I’m guessing you’re staying?”  
  
Hollie was sure she was gaping like a fish when Roxanne turned to her. Luckily the glance only lasted for a second before Roxanne said, “Yeah. Be safe! And don’t apparate!”  
  
There was another chorus of laughter and ‘yes, mums’ before the group of Tutshill players headed for Hollie’s Floo. After goodbyes, the fireplace lit with green flames as the players disappeared for their destination.  
  
“I’m going to head home,” Charlotte said as the last of the party seekers headed through. “Give the babysitter the night off,” she explained. Hollie stood to hug the woman, and after congratulating her again for the game, waved her off as she too exited through the fireplace.  
  
Hollie watched as Alec snatched his Snitch from the air, stalling to be the last to leave. She wasn’t sure if Seekers were technically allowed to keep game balls, but Hollie thought Alec deserved it either way.  
  
“Be safe, you two,” Alec said as he grabbed a handful of Floo powder. With one final smirk, he added: “I would say: ‘don’t do anything I wouldn’t do,’ but that’d be counterproductive,” and disappeared in a flash of green.  
  
Hollie rolled her eyes, wishing she could throw something into the fireplace after him. Leaving Roxanne’s questioning look unanswered, Hollie said, “Considering I’m tired and didn’t play today, you must be exhausted.”  
  
Dropping the topic, Roxanne smiled and agreed. “Can’t quite party like we did at Hogwarts, can we?”  
  
Hollie let out a loud sigh that Roxanne laughed at. She fidgeted with a string of fabric on her knee for a second, before she asked, “Do you want to stay for a while?” Her words felt heavier than she wanted, so Hollie quickly added, “There probably won’t be too much magical interference this late; we could watch a movie.” Hollie pretended to look over at the clock on the wall to avoid staring at the girl.  
  
“That’d be great,” Roxanne said softly. “I never get to watch movies in my flat.”  
  
Hollie looked back to her in surprise. “Great! Err –” Hollie paused and looked over to her tiny collection of movies, Muggle and magic. “I’m going to change if you want to pick something…” her sentence trailed off as Roxanne looked towards her movie selections. Noticing the girl was still in jeans, Hollie added, “I’ll grab you something to wear, too.”  
  
In her bedroom, Hollie raced around and picked up old clothing as she tugged off what she was wearing. Gathering up everything and throwing it in the direction of her hamper, Hollie also pointed her wand at her bed and made it for the first time in ages. After she was satisfied with the state of the room, Hollie tugged on a pair of pajamas, grabbed a pair for Roxanne, and headed back.  
  
When she got back into the room and saw Roxanne, Hollie immediately winced and rushed over to her. “You can’t… you have to hold it by the sides.” Hollie took Roxanne’s wrist, and repositioned her fingers so she was holding the Muggle movie without smudging it. She let go of Roxanne’s hand to cover up her smile as Roxanne looked at her own reflection in the back of the movie.  
  
“Ah,” Roxanne said. “Sorry.”  
  
“Here,” Hollie said, holding out the pajamas for a trade. “I’ll set it up. Bathroom’s—”  
  
“I’ll find it.” Roxanne smiled as she took the garments. Hollie watched the girl snoop around her flat for a few moments, before letting her be to set up the movie. Hollie looked down to the case of the movie that Roxanne picked and laughed. It was a picture of about nine or so Muggle University kids, all doing various outrageous things in different states of undress. Shrugging, Hollie tossed the case aside and tugged a throw blanket off the back of her couch. Just as she was settling in to the previews, Roxanne came back in the room.  
  
“Find anything interesting in your snooping?” Hollie asked as Roxanne dropped onto the couch next to her. Before Hollie could offer, Roxanne pulled the blanket so it was over both of them.  
  
“I’ll never tell,” Roxanne said with another sly smile. Just as Hollie opened her mouth to snark back, Roxanne added, “Movie’s starting, sweetie; shush.”  
  
With an eye roll, Hollie settled back into the couch and watched.  
  
At the late hour, Hollie’s electricity was hardly interfered with, so the movie managed to play with only minimal static. That also meant that Roxanne could probably hear Hollie’s heartbeat pick up when their fingers met under the blanket.  
  
“It’s a shame that most wizards don’t get to experience this,” Roxanne joked as one of the characters ran across the screen, naked except for a square shaped hat, with an expertly placed shrub in front of him. Hollie caught Roxanne’s eyes as the girl smiled.  
  
“I don’t know,” Hollie mused, ignoring the way Roxanne’s hand was pressed against hers. “I think something along those lines happened in the Slytherin common room after a game. Though, it might have been a portrait of Professor Snape instead of a plant.”  
  
Roxanne’s laughter filled the room as the man in the movie ran across the school grounds with a branch covering himself. Hollie watched Roxanne for a few moments as the movie went to another scene. It was a quieter one, where the main male character waxed poetic about the pretty enigmatic girl.  
  
Alcohol wearing into drowsiness, Hollie soon found herself resting on Roxanne’s shoulder. She actually did want to see the movie, but her eyelids were heavy as the characters attended yet another booze filled party.  
  
When the movie transitioned to plot filling nonsense, Hollie felt Roxanne shift to look at her. “You can’t pass out before the guy gets the girl,” Roxanne said quietly.  
  
“She’s totally going to ditch him for her roommate,” Hollie said through a yawn. “Just watch how they look at each other when they’re doing homework.”  
  
When Roxanne clicked her tongue, Hollie finally sat up. “Don’t spoil the ending,” Roxanne chastised. Hollie turned to her and smirked. She held the glance with Roxanne for a few seconds, and when Roxanne didn’t turn away, Hollie felt her smile fade.  
  
In retrospect, Hollie was sure it was Roxanne that instigated the kiss, though in the moment where their eyes locked and silent questions were passed, it was hard to tell who actually started it. One quick press of lips lead right into another, and their knees bumped together as they both turned to be closer.  
  
As much as Hollie wanted to press her hand into Roxanne’s waist and pull her closer, she let Roxanne be in control so the girl would be comfortable. Through everything, Hollie was still fully aware that this was all very new to Roxanne. Instead, she placed her hand on her own knee to stop from fidgeting.  
  
When Roxanne’s hand slid across Hollie’s stomach and to her waist, she finally broke away long enough to look at the girl. Their eye contact held for a few heated seconds, as if Roxanne was searching for any sort of okay to continue. Hollie surged forward and captured Roxanne’s lips in another kiss, pressing her hand to the girl’s cheek as she did. Movie forgotten, Roxanne shifted on top of Hollie so she had a knee on either side of Hollie’s thighs. Hollie let her hands fall from Roxanne’s cheeks to press her fingers into the girl’s waist, pulling her closer.  
  
After a few moments, Roxanne pulled back to catch her breath. Still, she leaned her forehead against Hollie’s as they both breathed heavily. Hollie’s hands felt like brands on the girl’s hips.  
  
“Are… do you—” Hollie’s voice croaked as she tried to speak. She shut her mouth to watch the emotions play across Roxanne’s face.  
  
“I don’t know,” Roxanne whispered. With the way Roxanne’s eyes darted to Hollie’s lips and back to making eye contact, Hollie felt a new surge of hope that she hadn’t permitted before. “I don’t know, Hollie.”  
  
“We can figure it out,” Hollie whispered back with promise. She shifted her hand from Roxanne’s hip to tuck a stray hair behind the girl’s ear. “Will you stay tonight?”  
  
Roxanne answered Hollie with another kiss.  
  
*  
  
The rest of the night was a bit surreal for Hollie. She and Roxanne shared a few more kisses, until things got too heated and Hollie backed off. She didn’t want to give Roxanne the impression that she was expecting anything, especially because they hadn’t discussed what their future would hold. When they moved to the bedroom, movie long forgotten, both girls were out within minutes of falling into the bed.  
  
All too soon, Hollie and Roxanne startled awake to the alarm letting them know they were going to be late for practice.  
  
Hollie slid her hand across the bed and poked Roxanne in the side. “Time to wake up, Captain.”  
  
She smiled when she heard Roxanne huff out a tired laugh. Roxanne rolled herself across the bed and into the crook of Hollie’s arm. “Your bed shouldn’t be allowed to be this comfortable,” she muttered into Hollie’s neck, making Hollie shiver. She felt Roxanne smile against her collarbone.  
  
Deciding against a joke about Roxanne being welcome back any time, Hollie wrapped her arm more securely around the girl, and after a quick press of lips to Roxanne’s forehead, she tugged back. Sitting up, she said, “Quicker you wake up, the quicker Coach yells himself hoarse and the quicker we can leave.”  
  
Roxanne let out a sigh, but sat up nonetheless.  
  
The two got ready quickly, chatting about the game the previous day, and what they suspected Coach would yell about that day. Hollie let Roxanne borrow one of her old Tutshill jumpers, and after grabbing a spot of breakfast from Hollie’s kitchen, they traveled to the stadium.  
  
“We’re late,” Roxanne said as she looked around the empty locker room. Both of the girls grabbed their equipment from their lockers, and tugged on their padding as they walked out towards the field.  
  
Hollie sighed. “Alec will get a wonderful laugh out of this.”  
  
Hollie heard Roxanne chuckle as they both jogged out onto the field. Thankfully the team hadn’t actually started practice yet, which Hollie was just about to inform Roxanne of when Alec took a step closer to Charlotte.  
  
Vaguely, Hollie heard their coach muttering, “Thanks for joining us, Weasley and Finnigan,” in a sarcastic tone, but his voice was muffled by blood rushing to her face and ears. Hollie slowed to a walk as she approached the team, and out of the corner of her eye, saw Roxanne do the same.  
  
Hollie stared at the man in the clean-pressed Tornados kit, standing next to Coach with an easy smile.  
  
Logan Avery was back.


	10. Hurt Heart

The first thing that Hollie’s brain processed was that Logan Avery looked healthier. He was standing up tall, had healthy color in his cheeks, and had a mellow smile brimming towards his teammates.  
  
The next thing she noticed, was when he finally saw Roxanne, he didn’t look at any of the other teammates.  
  
“Roxanne,” Avery said, breaking the silence. He took a step towards her and Hollie, making Hollie freeze. “It’s—”  
  
“Yeah, yeah,” Coach interrupted suddenly. Hollie was never happier for his bullish personality. “We can play happy joy catch up after practice. Williams, you’ll be with Avery filling him in; Weasley, warm ups and then flying patterns with the rest of them. Get in the air!”  
  
Bewildered, Hollie’s gaze shot between her teammates, eventually landing on Alec. When All Alec could manage was a shrug, alluding that he had no idea that Avery would be making his appearance, Hollie turned back to Roxanne. However, the space next to Hollie was unoccupied, as Roxanne had already flown off towards the goalposts. When Hollie turned back to Alec again, she saw he had his arms crossed and was holding a defensive stance.  
  
Hollie watched Logan talk calmly to Alec. His entire demeanor seemed to be changed; he was standing up straight, he had a clean haircut, and he wasn’t talking over Alec like a drunken bull.  
  
Hollie jumped when Coach appeared in front of her line of vision and blew his whistle in close proximities.  
  
“Do you need a special snowflake invitation this morning, Finnigan?!”  
  
When Hollie looked to Alec again, he and Logan were both staring.  
  
“Err… sorry Coach.” Fumbling to keep her bat in her hand, Hollie mounted her broom and flew up to join her fellow Beaters.  
  
“Late night?” Livvy asked, and exaggerated a wink.  
  
 _Something like that_ , Hollie thought as she looked to the ground to avoid a glance over to the goalposts. She shook her head and stretched.  
  
Practice passed by Hollie in a haze. Vaguely, she was aware that they were honing their defensive patterns because of Puddlemere United’s _stellar, unbeatable defense_ , as coach had been growling out out between drills. Through flying patterns and swinging, Hollie’s brain spun with the fact that Logan Avery was floating back into their lives. Reading the papers and over-thinking the articles, Hollie had known that this moment would come, but nothing could have prepared her for her glance over to the goalposts to see Roxanne tracking both of the Seekers’ movement.  
  
Several attempts from Livvy and Salvador had her focusing for a few moments, but Hollie always found herself getting torn back and thinking about the previous night. Biting back a shaky sigh, Hollie tried to stop torturing herself with Roxanne’s avoided glances and focus on the drills.  
  
Before Hollie fully realized, practice had been called to a close and Coach was explaining that they would be meeting at the Puddlemere stadium bright and early for Sobriety spells. Old news, Hollie listened with feigned interest as she stared at Avery.  
  
She watched the way his eyes tracked Roxanne’s movement right back, how he seemed to be itching for Coach to stop speaking so he could speak to her. She wanted so badly for Roxanne to be looking at her when she glanced to the captain, and Hollie’s heart thumped helplessly when the girl wouldn’t meet her glance.  
  
Hollie wanted so badly to tell herself that the air just needed to be cleared. But as Coach dismissed them and she watched Roxanne grab Logan by the bicep to pull him off and finally _talk_ , Hollie felt her heartbeat skyrocket. She waited for Roxanne to turn back; to give her some kind of indication to stay and wait, but what she saw instead was Logan pressing his hand about Roxanne’s elbow to pull her closer. Hollie watched the familiar tactile motions that shattered any hope she had from the previous night.  
  
Hollie clenched her jaw as Roxanne didn’t push his hand off, even going so far as to smile as the man started talking. When Avery leaned in close to start his discussion, Hollie felt her stomach turn. Tears brimmed in her eyes as she turned and made her quiet exit off of the field, horrible predictions unfolding right in front of her.  
  
She knew it would happen. Alec had warned her, Roxanne had told her that the relationship would be temporary, and she herself knew what she was getting into. Hollie arrived in the locker rooms and grabbed a shaky handful of Floo powder. Her voice cracked as she called out the address to her flat and she tried to swallow the lump in the back of her throat as she stepped into the fireplace.  
  
When Hollie stepped out of the fireplace in her apartment her cheeks were wet, tears finally having spilled over. Her eyes burned with wetness as she crossed the room and curled up onto the couch, hugging her knees to her chest. Hollie dragged the blanket that she and Roxanne had tossed aside the night before over her head and let out a sob.  
  
Roxanne was done with her.  
  
Tears flowed down her cheeks and onto her kit as she tried to tell herself that she didn’t have the right to get upset. She knew. She knew that eventually Roxanne would be done playing pretend, and the girl would go back to reality. And now it was Hollie’s turn to finally accept the same.  
  
Hollie thought about how much hope the previous night had given her as she pressed her knuckles to her damp eyes, smearing away some of the wetness. She thought about the small moment of something more that would forever be tainted by waking up to reality.  
  
Whether she shut her eyes to the darkness, or opened them to the sun peeking through the fabric over her head, Hollie couldn’t get the image of Logan resting his hand on Roxanne’s shoulder out of her mind. She couldn’t push away the thought of Logan’s polite smile, coming back into their lives as if nothing had changed and ruining everything.  
  
She didn’t even know how much Logan knew about them; if he even knew about their illicit relationship. He’d been in rehabilitation, and she wasn’t sure if they were allowed to read the news. For all the man knew, Roxanne could have been waiting for him to get better to continue their ‘Captain and Seeker’ love story.  
  
Hollie rubbed her eyes as a fresh batch of tears started and another sob escaped. She didn’t listen to her friends’ warnings and fell more in love with Roxanne Weasley, and was left with nothing but a broken heart.  
  
Unsure if it had been minutes or hours of crying under her blanket, Hollie grabbed one of the pillows off of the end of her couch and settled into the corner. She could smell how badly she needed a shower from practice as she finally kicked her trainers off to curl up into a fort of pillows and blankets. She tugged the fabric back over her head as she rubbed her eyes.  
  
A voice broke the silence of her flat. “Hollie?”  
  
It was Alec. Of course it was.  
  
“You don’t have to say it,” Hollie muttered, finally hearing how wrecked her voice sounded. “I should have listened to you.”  
  
“I lost the starting spot against Puddlemere,” Alec said. Hearing the gravel in his voice, Hollie tugged the blanket off of her face. She stared at him for a second, taking in his clenched jaw and shining eyes.  
  
“Alec—” Hollie whispered, unsure how to convey her apology.  
  
“Does that warrant joining your moping blanket fort club?” Alec asked, giving her a sad smile.  
  
Hollie returned the look and lifted the side of the blanket. She watched as he toed out of his trainers and slid over to let him in. Settling in between the pillows, Alec wrapped his arm around her and sighed.  
  
“Even though you warned me and I should have listened, I’m still going to cry on your shoulder now,” Hollie muttered as she leaned her head on him. A new tear burned down the side of her reddened cheek as he pulled her into a hug.  
  
Hollie rubbed her red rimmed eyes as she listened to the story of what happened in Coach’s office after the practice, not quite ready to talk about her own problems.  
  
“He said it’d be good for press,” Alec explained, adding a sardonic laugh. “Said the fans would love to see their hero make a full recovery and beat his alcoholism.”  
  
Unsure of what to say to convey how bad she felt, Hollie wrapped her arm around Alec and hugged him.  
  
“Coach is worried about him relapsing if he doesn’t have Quidditch,” Alec added. “Says it’ll be good for him to get back to playing. Which is true.”  
  
“But it still screws you over,” Hollie muttered. She reached over and grabbed his hand to squeeze it. Alec sighed, and Hollie felt him nodding.  
  
“Your turn,” Alec said, squeezing her hand back. “Blanket fort rules.”  
  
Hollie couldn’t help the wet laugh that escaped her. “It’s my blanket fort,” she argued. “I can avoid another batch of tears as long as I want to.”  
  
They sat in silence for a few moments, until Hollie finally sighed. “I should have just bloody listened to you and Charlotte. But it got so real. I remember back to that first awful kiss for _The Daily Prophet_ reporters, and then compared to last night—” Hollie let her sentence trail off with a sigh.  
  
Grateful that Alec didn’t ask what happened the previous night, Hollie didn’t elaborate. She knew he saw them arrive together, and he’d seen the shock on her face when she noticed Avery.  
  
“Did she say anything to you?” Alec asked. When Hollie furrowed her eyebrows, he added, “During practice? Or after.”  
  
Hollie shook her head. “She couldn’t even look at me. God I was so stupid. I shouldn’t have kissed her. Shit, I shouldn’t have done any of this.”  
  
“You have to make those mistakes, Hollie. Remember Jeremy?”  
  
“You’re actually going to relive the Jeremy story just to make me feel better?” Hollie asked, raising her eyebrows.  
  
Alec shrugged. “It kind of fits. I knew going in that he thought he could _fix_ me, and I still dated him for two months.”  
  
“He was such an arse.” Hollie sighed, remembering back to the night Alec had shown up in her flat, cheeks tear streaked and heart a broken mess.  
  
“Still,” Alec replied, and Hollie felt him shrug the shoulder she wasn’t leaning on. “It was a mistake and I made it anyway because sometimes life just demands to give you something to learn from.”  
  
“Deep,” Hollie said, elbowing him in the side.  
  
He chuckled at her. “You know I’ll always be here, whether or not I _totally_ warned you not to.”  
  
“And we’re back to you always being right,” Hollie replied, shaking her head. Alec laughed, and pulled her into another hug.  
  
They sat in silence as Hollie wiped tears away. Just because it was a mistake she knew she was making didn’t mean it hurt any less.  
  
Time ticked away for a while as Hollie sat and leaned on Alec for support, eventually shutting her eyes as her crying exhausted her. Drifting in and out of consciousness, Hollie dreamt about Roxanne pulling Logan into a heated kiss, of Roxanne ignoring her to meet Logan in another dirty bathroom, denying the entire fake affair.  
  
She dreamt about the times they had shared a bed, about pulling Roxanne close to her and sharing small kisses and giggles over a single pillow. The times she thought that Roxanne had meant something more than posing to trick the press, and that a future real relationship might actually happen. The remembrance of promised visits to family members had Hollie suddenly jerking awake.  
  
Blinking her eyes open again, she saw there was a picture on the television. Hollie stared at the muted movements of a man in a Muggle suit leaning against a desk angrily, trying to control his breathing and not holler at the person sitting across from him.  
  
Rubbing at her sore eyes, Hollie asked Alec what he was watching. After he shrugged and pointed towards the remote, Hollie said, “I need to go talk to my parents.”  
  
Finally distracted, Alec turned away from the television. “Why?”  
  
“To tell them not to worry when _The Daily Prophet_ publishes Roxanne and Avery getting back together.” When Alec made a face at her, Hollie shrugged and said, “It’s the least I can do, warn them this time.”  
  
Alec nodded. Instead of standing right away, he unwrapped his arm from around her and turned so they were facing. “I was serious, Hollie. You know you don’t have to go through this alone.”  
  
Hollie smiled, and when Alec held his arms out for another hug, she laughed and wrapped her arms around him.  
  
“Do you want to come with? We can go to that pub with the Hot Pot you like,” Hollie offered.  
  
Alec laughed. “That sentence was so Irish I think I’m going to cry.”  
  
Hollie’s smile dropped. “You’re uninvited.”  
  
“I can’t anyway,” he said as he stood up and stretched. “I’m going to Ellie’s to convince her to sell the tickets she and Saanvi _purchased_ for the game tomorrow.”  
  
“Which she won’t, because she’s too wonderful for you,” Hollie countered, making Alec chuckle again. After another hug and a wave goodbye, Alec headed towards the Floo.  
  
“You’ll be okay, Hollie,” he said as he grabbed a handful of Floo powder. “You’ll get through this.”  
  
Hollie gave him the best smile she could muster, even if it felt like there was still something twisting in her heart.  
  
When Alec waved and left through the Floo, Hollie watched the green flames quickly flare up and die down, burning bright quickly and fading even faster. Snapping herself out of her trance, she grabbed a jumper and headed out of her building and out of the wards. After an old woman and her fluffy dog were out of sight, Hollie shut her eyes and focused on the uneven walkway towards her parents’ house, and with a tug she was there.  
  
She hesitated outside the door for a moment, remembering the bickering she and Roxanne had on the front porch. To avoid another fresh batch of tears, Hollie quickly shook her head and opened the door. She knew this would be the first step to getting her life back into order and to finally try to get over Roxanne.  
  
“Dad? Papa?” Hollie called out as she stepped through the doorway. She scanned the living room, and after seeing it was empty, turned for the kitchen to see her papa’s head of dark hair poking around the corner. He was holding a tea kettle with an oven mitt.  
  
“Hollie?” he asked as his eyebrows furrowed. “What are you doing here?”  
  
Hollie gave her father a sad smile as her answer. Her vision blurred with wetness as he scrambled to set the kettle down and pull her into a hug. “Oh, Hollie.”  
  
Sobs escaped her before Hollie managed to mutter out why she was there suddenly bawling in her parents’ living room. She wasn’t sure how her father heard anything besides “Roxanne” and “over”, but he didn’t ask her to clarify. Standing in the entryway of the kitchen, Hollie cried as her father hugged her.  
  
“I love her,” Hollie whispered shakily. “I just love her and she doesn’t love me back.”  
  
“I’m sorry, sweetheart.” She could feel him rubbing little circles onto her shoulder like he did when she was little.  
  
Hollie sniffled and took a deep breath before asking, “Is Dad home?”  
  
“He’s gone into town,” Papa replied. “Come on, sweetie, let’s sit down.” Hollie followed him and curled her feet under her as she sat into the corner of the couch.  
  
After agreeing to tea, Hollie took a sip of the hot liquid before closing her eyes and sighing. With her eyes shut, she didn’t have to see her father’s reaction when she told him, “We were faking it for the press.”  
  
To say the least, her father didn’t have an answer for that. Hollie opened her eyes to see him frozen with his teacup almost to his lips. Without taking a drink, he lowered it back down and set it on the coffee table and nodded at her to explain.  
  
Hollie sighed. “Roxanne had a fling with a girl and Logan outed her and then got sent to rehab so the bloody uneducated _Daily Prophet_ writers started blaming Roxanne for Logan’s drinking so I pretended to be her girlfriend so they’d stop slandering her.”  
  
Her father was staring at her. “What?”  
  
Hollie sighed. “I just thought…” she let her sentence trail off when she couldn’t find the words.  
  
“That she’d spend time with you and fall in love back.” Her father didn’t phrase it like a question so Hollie didn’t reply.  
  
The room was quiet for a moment before her papa spoke again. “Your father and I were seventeen when we got together.”  
  
“In the Room of Requirement thanks to Luna, I know, love confessions and happily ever after,” Hollie muttered.  
  
“Kind of,” her papa replied. Hollie’s gaze shot up to him. “Our first kiss was in the Room of Requirement and wouldn’t have happened without your godmother, but we didn’t get together until a few months after.”  
  
“What?” She could feel her mouth hanging open.  
  
“We both blamed the adrenaline in our heads for the kiss. Your father and I thought we ruined seven years of friendship all in one stupid moment. We didn’t speak for weeks until I showed up on Nana’s doorstep and begged your dad to just _try._ ”  
  
Hollie stared at her father, shocked. “Why didn’t you ever tell me and Sean this?”  
  
“Your father and I saved the story for your big life crisis. Sean heard it when he almost left Jess the night before the wedding.”  
  
A squeak escaped Hollie’s mouth. “So I’m the only one who’s been living the lie?”  
  
Her father’s fond smile dropped. “You’re missing the point, Hollie. Your father thought we’d lost everything because of some stupid kiss.”  
  
“But it wasn’t a stupid kiss,” Hollie argued, “You guys got married. I exist because of that stupid kiss!”  
  
“Because we fought for it after.” He raised a challenging brow. “Sometimes it doesn’t come down to a big romantic gesture. Sometimes it’s working things out a little at a time and fighting for what you want.”  
  
Hollie frowned. “I can’t fight for Roxanne like you and Dad did. You both loved each other. She’s not gay and she doesn’t feel the same.”  
  
Her dad gave her one of those pitiful smiles that only parents can master. “She seemed like she liked you more than just pretend when you two visited. And your dad was in Diagon Alley this week; Roxanne’s father said you stopped by.”  
  
“She was faking it,” Hollie muttered, feeling bitter all over again. She heard her father sigh as she sipped her tea. “It was all fake.”  
  
“All I’m saying is, your father and I had to work for a lot of things, and we didn’t raise you to give up on things so quickly.”  
  
Hollie looked up to him again and watched the corners of his eyes crinkle as he smiled. She looked to the salty spots in his otherwise dark hair and thought about the stories her parents told about their years through Hogwarts.  
  
She wanted so badly to fight for Roxanne the same way her dads fought for each other. She squeezed her eyes shut at the memories of Roxanne pulling Avery away, remembering Roxanne stuttering over asking about being bisexual.  
  
“What if I try and she just rejects me even more?” Hollie muttered with her eyes closed.  
  
“Then you move on. You’re a talented and beautiful girl that is strong enough to get through anything.”  
  
Hollie opened her eyes. “You’re my dad. You have to say that.” When he grinned Hollie tried to hide a smile of her own. When she couldn’t hold it back, she finally laughed along with her father and let him hug her.  
  
She wanted to try.


	11. Sign Up

Hollie pressed her hand to her stomach as she stepped away from the plastic umbrella, shutting her eyes. She knew arriving outside the visiting stadium always gave spectators the idea that they were full of team comradery, but she never understood why their coach decided to choose a method of travel that cause such bad nausea in people. Considering the man himself would Floo into the Coach’s Chambers, she clenched her hand in irritation at the public display.  
  
Combined with the horrible night sleep on the couch – spent mostly awake and thinking about Roxanne – and the minimal breakfast, Hollie was not feeling up for magical travel.  
  
After spending time with her dads the previous night, Hollie hadn’t known what to expect when she got back to her flat. Remains of her and Alec’s heart to heart still sat in shambles on the couch, and her coffee table was still covered in empty bottles from the impromptu team gathering the day before that.  
  
Hollie’s life hadn’t stopped in the past forty-eight hours When she dragged herself through the mess of her flat and towards the couch, she couldn’t help but notice that Roxanne hadn’t attempted to contact her, by Floo or otherwise. Avoiding her bedroom for the night – not quite ready to lay in the place she and Roxanne had just been together – Hollie had tugged a blanket over herself and let her exhaustion take over.  
  
Alec’s hand on her arm pulled her out of her memory. “Alright?” he asked, eying the hand on her stomach.  
  
Hollie shook her head and shot him a forced smile. “Bad landing.” Before Alec could open his mouth to call her lie, Hollie asked, “Did you make it to Ellie’s last night?”  
  
Alec chuckled. “She wouldn’t sell the tickets. She—”  
  
“Miss Weasley, over here!”  
  
“Tornados! Captain Weasley!” The shouts of reporters and shutters of cameras halted Alec’s story, and the pair turned back and watched the team get swarmed by reporters.  
  
Through all of the camera flashes and shouted questions, Hollie still felt as if time had stopped as her eyes met Roxanne’s. She knew the girl could see the dark circles around her eyes of the night past, and Roxanne’s own eyes matched, evidence of a sleepless night.  
  
With a blink the moment was gone, and Roxanne plastered a smile on her face as she turned to the horde of reporters.  
  
“Captain Weasley, can you address the rumors of Logan Avery’s return?”  
  
“A source from St. Mungo’s says he’s checked out of rehabilitation; any news of a rekindling romance?”  
  
“Can you tell us of Tutshill’s plans to thwart the United’s impassible defensive strategies?”  
  
The shouting dulled as Roxanne turned to the woman who asked about the game, relief evident on her face. “Tutshill has an offense that can match anything Coach Wood tries to throw at us. We’re looking forward to it.”  
  
“Plus we have a Keeper that rivals his own rankings!” Livvy shouted as she threw her arm over Roxanne’s shoulder. Their teammates joined her in a battle cry as the camera operators all captured shot after shot. If Tutshill won today, Hollie hoped those would be the pictures that made the front pages of The Daily Prophet.  
  
Truthfully though, she doubted it. The second they got onto the pitch and the press realized that Avery was indeed flying with the team, he’d be all the talk.  
  
More questions were tossed out from other reporters, but Roxanne and the rest of the team ignored them as they finally headed in for the pitch.  
  
Looking at Alec for a moment to steel her nerves, Hollie gave him a small nod and jogged forward to try to catch up with Roxanne. There wouldn’t be many chances for Hollie to talk to Roxanne that day, so Hollie knew she had to try when she could.  
  
Just as Hollie caught up with the girl, Roxanne broke out into a run of her own.  
  
“Fred!” Roxanne called out. Hollie looked ahead of them to see Roxanne’s brother and his wife waiting.  
  
Roxanne signaled to Livvy to keep the team walking towards the pitch, making Hollie finally drop her gaze and shake her head, joining the team. She felt stupid thinking she could try to speak to Roxanne in such a moment as this. It’d be the only time of day they’d have where Avery wasn’t around, as coach was keeping him a surprise for out on the field. Hollie, Alec, and the rest of the team were sworn to media secrecy on the topic.  
  
Hollie hadn’t minded having an excuse not to speak to the reporters that day.  
  
“Hollie, wait!”  
  
Freezing mid-step, Hollie slowly turned on her heel and winced. Her heart clamored in her chest as the first words Roxanne had spoken to her echoed in her ears.  
  
Taking small, labored steps forward, Hollie took short breaths as she walked to Roxanne, panic rising. She didn’t know what she’d been thinking. Even if she got to talk to Roxanne, what would she even say? Hollie stopped as she came up next to the girl. When Roxanne reached to her and touched her arm, Hollie squeezed her eyes shut so none of her emotions would play out on her face.  
  
“Fred was just wishing us luck before the match,” Roxanne said as she slipped her arm over Hollie’s shoulder. Hollie opened her eyes and forced her face into that of a smile. She looked down to the child in his arms, red curls covered in a Puddlemere United knit hat.  
  
“I’ll make Maisie a Cannons fan when she’s older. For now it’s getting too cold out,” Fred said as he followed Hollie’s line of vision to his daughter. She watched as a smile lit up on his face as his daughter grabbed for his finger. Fred looked up to Hollie, and with a furrow of his brows, turned to his sister. “Your girlfriend looks ill; is she playing in the match today?”  
  
“Portkey,” Hollie quickly covered, ignoring the burn in her cheeks at the incorrect title of affection. She’d never be _girlfriend_ , just _teammate that faked it for the press_.  
  
“Ah,” he muttered, smiling again. “My wife’s the same way. I won’t keep you, but we’ll have to go out for drinks sometime soon. Mum and dad can babysit – they’d be thrilled for a night with this one,” he then said, voice getting higher as he started to speak to his daughter instead. He looked up and grinned. “I’ll see you around, Roxanne. You too, Hollie.”  
  
Hollie didn’t know if it was possible for her heart to be ripped out yet another time, but as the dark haired man pulled her into a quick hug before walking off, she thought he might be stepping on it in his wake.  
  
The horde of reporters had made its way towards the field after capturing shots of Roxanne and her brother, so Hollie and Roxanne were left within the fans trickling around them to get to the field.  
  
Clenching her jaw and willing the wetness in her eyes not to fall, Hollie lifted her head and looked at Roxanne. She knew this would be her only chance to talk to Roxanne today, before the girl would be swept up in all things Quidditch.  
  
She should tell her she wanted to date her for real. She should tell Roxanne she was in love with her, and has been in love with her for quite a while.  
  
Memories flooded her of Avery’s fingers resting on Roxanne’s elbow, of the pair together in the dirty club bathroom, and Hollie clenched her fists. Roxanne didn’t feel the same way about her. Hollie glanced around to see a few straggling reporters eying them.  
  
“Good luck in the match today, sweetheart,” Hollie muttered. She knew how broken her voice sounded as the lies for the press poured out. “I know you’ll be great.” Before Roxanne could reply, Hollie brushed past her and headed towards the stadium.  
  
Refusing to let tears fall and give the press even more of a story, Hollie hurried through the stadium security and towards the visiting locker room. Inside, Hollie dressed as she listened to Coach give strategies to the playing team members with feigned interest. Puddlemere was another undefeated team in the British/Irish pre-season games, and everyone was on edge because of it. Putting Avery in was a risky call, and Hollie knew if it wasn’t for the press, Coach wouldn’t be doing it.  
  
Hollie looked to the ground as Roxanne joined them. She fidgeted with her bat as coach talked to the quiet room, the tension between teammates creating an uneasy environment.  
  
Before long, the team was headed out onto the field. Knowing that this would be the first time in a while that Alec would be benched with her, Hollie walked up next to him and bumped her shoulder with his. He looked down and gave her a grateful smile, and as they heard the announcer start to call out Tutshill’s names, the pair mounted their brooms. Instead of using any of the time on the field to fly around, Hollie headed straight for the sidelines. As she landed in the dugout, she looked at the fated bench and sighed.  
  
Joining Hollie on the bench a few moments later, Alec dropped next to her. “Well,” he muttered, leaning his broom next to him. “It was fun while it lasted.”  
  
Fate’s timing seemed to dislike the benched Seeker; just as he settled in to his seat the crowd cheered on Avery’s surprise entry. Despite being mostly Puddlemere fans, Avery was still a crowd favorite. Hollie turned from the field and stared to where Alec’s knuckles were white as he clenched his fists. She elbowed him and watched as he gritted.  
  
Hollie gave him a sympathetic smile. As much as she was hurting from Roxanne’s lack of feelings, she knew Alec was having a worse day and she wanted to be there for him. She pulled him into a quick one-armed hug as the referee recited the pre-match rules.  
  
The whistle blew and the Quaffle was in the air, taking Hollie’s attention. A groan of disappointment rang through the stands as Terrence snagged the Quaffle just out of the Puddlemere Chaser’s reach. In the statistic of Quaffle grabs, Terrence was at the top by a large margin. Hollie cracked a smile as Terrence shot down the field towards Puddlemere’s goal post. Unfortunately for the speedy Chaser, the Puddlemere Keeper stopped his goal attempt and the Tornados lost possession of the Quaffle.  
  
Cheers rang out as the Puddlemere Chasers flew in tight formation, making it impossible for Nicholas and Nora to attempt to steal the ball back. Hollie’s eyes shot towards the goal posts, looking for Salvador or Livvy or anyone that could help defend their own hoops. The close formation Puddlemere was using would guarantee them a goal unless one of Tutshill’s Beaters could break them apart.  
  
Hollie looked down towards the ground as the cheers from the stands announced Puddlemere’s first score. Gritting her teeth, she tried not to think about what she would have done. It only caused unnecessary irritation at her teammates and friends if she let thoughts like that form. She couldn’t take her bad day out on teammates that didn’t cause it, and if there was one thing Hollie learned from sitting on the bench, spectators saw things differently than the actual players. She watched for a few seconds as Salvador sped after a Bludger shot towards Terrence, while Livvy hung closer to the goalposts to provide defense for Roxanne.  
  
It seemed like seconds after Tutshill gained the Quaffle back, Puddlemere’s Chasers managed to steal it away and shoot down to the goalposts again. In the blink of an eye, Puddlemere managed another goal against Roxanne. Hollie scowled – the bags under the girl’s eyes plus Roxanne’s performance today seemed to be connected.  
  
Over the eruption of cheering in the stands, Hollie heard Coach yell, “Elijah, warm up!”  
  
Before she realized what she was doing, Hollie was on her feet. “Coach it was two bloody goals! You can’t take her out for the fact that no one’s defending her!”  
  
“Sit _down,_ Finnigan!” Coach bellowed back, eyes fixed where Nicholas was weaving in between two separate Bludger attacks. “Weasley knows better than anyone not to go out the night before a game, yet she–” his sentence trailed off with grumblings about the gameplay.  
  
With another expertly placed Bludger, Tutshill lost possession again. “Bloody – Finnigan SIT DOWN!” Coach tore his sight away from the field and glared at Hollie until she dropped to her seat.  
  
“Arse,” Hollie muttered. She turned to Alec to see him chuckling, the only one to hear her. His line of sight was fixed on the field, so Hollie followed it to find Avery on the receiving end. He was hovering well above the stadium, sights fixed on the field and in pursuit of the Snitch.  
  
“How’s he doing?” Hollie asked as she watched Alec track the other Seeker.  
  
Alec sighed. “Swimmingly. Well, compared to.” Hollie and Alec both looked towards the scoreboard, to where Tutshill still had zero points. Coach had started pacing and grumbling to himself. Hollie found Livvy again to see that she had finally positioned herself near the goal posts to help defend Roxanne, and stayed there.  
  
“Roxanne’s missing stuff she normally wouldn’t,” Alec commented a few moments later, finally looking away from the field and to Hollie.  
  
“Doesn’t mean she needs to be taken out of the game,” Hollie muttered, irritated.  
  
“Not saying that,” Alec replied. “Pointing out an obvious observation to clue you in that she may have her mind on other things than Quidditch.”  
  
Hollie tore her glance away from the field. “Don’t. Please don’t.”  
  
Their conversation was interrupted as gasps from the stands took their attention. Nora was expertly weaving through all of the United players, Quaffle tightly tucked under her arm. Hollie and Alec both watched and cheered as the girl finally put Tutshill on the scoreboard.  
  
“Bloody finally!” Coach shouted. His pacing didn’t cease as the goal meant Puddlemere would have Quaffle possession again.  
  
Crossing her fingers and hoping with everything in her, Hollie watched as Puddlemere passed the Quaffle down the field. A goal attempt from the center Chaser rolled off of the tips of Roxanne’s fingers and flew through the hoop.  
  
Hollie grimaced. It was way too easy of a goal for Roxanne to miss, and having it roll off of her own fingertips and into the hoop made it even worse. She looked up to their coach and saw him gritting his teeth as he turned to the bench; specifically to Elijah, who was looking more nervous by the moment.  
  
“Timeout!” Coach bellowed, blowing into his whistle to gain the referee’s attention.  
  
Gameplay ceased as the Tutshill players flew over towards the sidelines. Hovering around the dugout, the active players waited until everyone had flown over, before Coach started berating them.  
  
Getting the feeling that she was being watched, Hollie looked up and made eye contact with Roxanne. Quickly looking to the floor, she listened as Coach reamed the team with instructions and motivation. Hollie’s mind burned with the way Roxanne had just been staring at her; she couldn’t do this anymore.  
  
“Switch me out, Coach.”  
  
Stopping in the middle of his sentence, Coach turned to Roxanne. Hollie watched as he narrowed his eyes at her.  
  
“Anyone else who was doing this poorly, you’d have switched them within minutes,” Roxanne said firmly.  
  
Coach made an exasperated noise, spinning wildly on his heel and glaring towards Elijah. “Ready for your Pro-Quidditch debut?”  
  
Elijah took a deep breath and stood, cracking his knuckles as he did. “Definitely, Coach.” Through the tensions of the gameplay, the Tornados members still chuckled.  
  
“Then get on the bloody field!” Coach shouted, turning his attention to the rest of the team just as their timeout clock hit zero.  
  
Despite her sour mood, Hollie stood and cheered as Elijah took the field. She knew from practice what kind of talent the boy had, and if anyone was going to take Roxanne’s place one day, Elijah Matthews would be the one that person.  
  
Out of the corner of her eye, Hollie saw Roxanne dismount her broom and tug off her helmet. Hollie looked behind her to the bench to try to avoid the girl’s glance. She tried to be subtle, and hoped that Roxanne would sit on the opposite side of Alec and Charlotte so that Hollie wouldn’t have to pretend to make small talk about the game, when she really just wanted to beg the girl to love her.  
  
Of course, Hollie wasn’t so lucky. When Hollie looked back up to the game, Roxanne was marching over to Hollie. Pulse quickening, Hollie instinctively leaned back and winced, fearing that she was about to be reprimanded. Roxanne stopped in front of her and placed her hands on her hips.  
  
“What is it then?” the girl demanded.  
  
“What?” Hollie squeaked.  
  
“What is it that I’ve done to you to make you act like we’ve broken up?”  
  
Hollie shut her eyes. She should have known. Tone soft, she said, “We did this for the press, Roxanne. There isn’t a break up. Avery’s back and you don’t need me anymore.” When she stopped speaking and opened her eyes, Roxanne was frowning.  
  
“Avery and I ended a long time ago, and we both know that,” Roxanne said, a coldness in her tone that Hollie didn’t expect. “I know I messed up, asking you to do this, and I know that you didn’t sign up for me to fall for you. Shit, I didn’t sign up for that either. I didn’t sign up to actually fall in love with a girl and realize that maybe, I’m not as straight as I thought I was. And I don’t know, if it’s you, or if I remember having a big old gay crush on Professor Nellie in fifth year, but I know that I’m bisexual and I’m kind of in love with you. So tell me, Hollie, what the hell did I do to make you want to push me out of your life after you kissed me the way you did?”  
  
Hollie couldn’t speak. She couldn’t move, she couldn’t do anything but stare at the girl standing in front of her. The girl standing in front of her, saying she was in love with her. Just as in love with her as Hollie was.  
  
An elbow in her side made her jump.  
  
Alec leaned close to her. “You probably want to tell her you love her back, Hollie, before we miss too much of the match.”  
  
Roxanne’s damp eyes light up, and a smile started to form on her face. Hollie stood from the bench so she was in front of Roxanne. Her cheeks were wet; she hadn’t realized it, but she had also started crying.  
  
“Is this real?” Hollie whispered. “This is real, right?”  
  
A tear fell down Roxanne’s cheek as she nodded, a bubble of laughter escaping her. “I hope so. Otherwise I missed a lot of goals for nothing.”  
  
Hollie wanted to tell her that it wasn’t nothing, that it was never nothing and they could finally be something _real_. Instead, she surged forward and kissed Roxanne. The girl reciprocated immediately, pressing her hand to Hollie’s cheek to pull her closer.  
  
“YOU WERE FAKING IT!?” Coach bellowed. Hollie and Roxanne both jumped apart, breaking the kiss and turning to him. “Weasley? Finnigan? You were bloody faking it? Do you actually hate me? Is that it?” He started muttering to himself as he began pacing again.  
  
Screams from the stands had the players in the dugout finally turning their attention back to the game at hand. One of the Puddlemere Chasers had possession – how it came to be, Hollie hadn’t a clue – and was rocketing down the field towards the Tornados’ end of the field. Elijah was in front of the middle hoop, eyeing the speedy Chaser as the Puddlemere player closed in on him. At the last moment the Chaser passed the Quaffle, and the Quaffle was thrown towards the goals.  
  
Hollie first registered Alec standing up next to her and cheering, and through the disappointment of the fans in the stands, she and the rest of the benched Tutshill players screamed. Elijah, Quaffle snug against his chest, raised his opposite fist in a small cheer, before passing it off to Nora and narrowly avoiding a Bludger flying his way.  
  
Hollie looked down when she felt fingers intertwine with hers. Through Alec’s cheering and Coach’s shouting, she looked back up and smiled to Roxanne.  
  
“I know I’ve said this once before,” Roxanne said as she pulled Hollie over to the bench. The girl took a seat, tugging Hollie down with her. “But, Hollie Finnigan, will you be my girlfriend? And not to hide from the press. Be my girlfriend because I really, really want you to.”  
  
Hollie answered her with a kiss. And even though the crowd exploded in cheers because Puddlemere scored again, Hollie felt like they were cheering for her.  
  
The end.


	12. Chapter 12

_The sun rises on the damp grass of the Tutshill Tornados stadium. Everything is quiet and peaceful in the empty stands, a stark contrast from what the seats are in store for later in the afternoon as the regular Quidditch season starts._  
  
 _The silence is suddenly broken as Tutshill’s newly promoted Beater, Hollie Finnigan, cries out, calling her Captain/Lover a quote: bloody tyrant. The lack of breath in her voice is evident as she pushes to keep up with the Keeper._  
  
 _Captain Roxanne Weasley laughs at her girlfriend, and turns around to start jogging backwards. “One more lap, sweetheart.”_  
  
 _“Why are we running!? We sit! We sit on brooms!” Finnigan calls back, pushing herself to catch up with Weasley._  
  
 _Eventually the couple finishes their morning jog, and gave this reporter a chance to talk with them about a little bit of everything.  
  
  
_ “We’ll start with you, Hollie,” the _Witch Weekly_ reporter said as the three of them sat on the grassy field. Hollie tucked her knees to her chest as she took a big drink of water.  
  
Looking up from her water bottle, she turned to Roxanne. After receiving an encouraging nod from her girlfriend, Hollie nodded to the reporter. “Okay.”  
  
“How does it feel to be promoted to the starting lineup right before the start of the regular season?”  
  
Hollie smiled. “Terrifying. But it’s something that I’ve wanted forever—” she let her sentence trail as she looked back to Roxanne, realizing how similar of a situation she’d been in with the girl right next to her. “Liv – Olivia – and I have been working together a lot, though, and hope to have a great season.”  
  
“Very sad, to see Salvador Dos Santos go, though?” The reporter replied in question.  
  
“Definitely,” Hollie said with a nod. “Though, we all look forward to seeing him play for Mexico again during the World Cup. Sometimes family just has to come first.”  
  
“Speaking of family,” the reporter said, transitioning. “Now Roxanne, your brother is married to the daughter of Oliver Wood, Puddlemere’s head coach. How interesting does that make family get-togethers?”  
  
Roxanne laughed loudly. “My brother is a Cannons fan, so many, many hurt feelings on his end.”  
  
The reporter chuckled. “That was quite a spectacular win by the Tornados last week.”  
  
Roxanne grinned. “Getting to watch Hollie play as I sat on the bench ended up being quite fun. And of course, Elijah was brilliant.” Roxanne turned to Hollie and smirked. “The one time we get the chance to spend the match together, you go and get an amazing promotion.”  
  
Laughing along with the other two, Hollie shook her head. “She’s not even happy for me, document that,” she said as she pointed towards the reporter’s magic quill. In retaliation, Roxanne dug her fingers into Hollie’s sides, causing the girl to shriek with laughter. When she opened her eyes back up, Hollie caught sight of the reporter’s camera taking candids of them.  
  
The reporter smiled. “Way too cute. Just one more question, Hollie, before I let you two go. A lot of young girls and boys who read this magazine may be struggling with coming to terms on the subject of their own sexuality. What advice can you give them?”  
  
Hollie thought for a few moments before answering. “I think there are moments, that sometimes you don’t realize are moments until later, so my advice would be to pay attention to those moments. You don’t always recognize it at face value, but one day you’ll see them and understand why it happened.”  
  
“What about you, Roxanne; anything you’d like to add?” the reporter asked.  
  
“This is going to sound rehearsed,” Roxanne started, “but be yourself. Be yourself and love yourself before anything else. If you can’t love and accept yourself that no one else in this world is going to. It’s okay to not know where you fit in, as long as you’re true to you.”  
  
“That was great, sweetie,” Hollie said as she leaned over and pressed a kiss to Roxanne’s cheek, smiling softly as Roxanne pressed back into it. It had been almost two months since their game against Puddlemere, and it still amazed Hollie that she really could kiss Roxanne Weasley whenever she wanted.  
  
After the reporter thanked the pair for the interview, she and her cameraman exited the pitch, leaving Roxanne and Hollie sitting on the grass. Hollie turned, and lied down so that her head was in Roxanne’s lap. Roxanne’s hands instantly went to her hair and she started playing with it.  
  
“ _Witch Weekly_ ,” Hollie mused. She let out a sigh.  
  
Above her, Roxanne chuckled. “ _Witch Weekly_ indeed.”  
  
“That was nice though,” Hollie said, closing her eyes. “Your advice. Mine was just vague and unhelpful.”  
  
“Still true,” Roxanne replied. “You don’t realize having a crush on your extremely female teacher is important until you put everything together.”  
  
“Goes hand in hand with being yourself,” Hollie said. As she spoke, she reached up and intertwined her fingers with Roxanne’s.  
  
Roxanne looked down to Hollie and gave her one of her brilliant smiles, squeezing their hands together. “Hand in hand.”


End file.
